Large eddy simulation of turbine wakes using higher-order methods

Large eddy simulations (LES) of a horizontal-axis turbine wake are presented using the well-known actuator line (AL) model. The fluid flow is resolved by employing higher-order numerical schemes on a 3D Cartesian mesh combined with a 2D Domain Decomposition strategy for an efficient use of supercomputers. In order to simulate flows at relatively high Reynolds numbers for a reasonable computational cost, a novel strategy is used to introduce controlled numerical dissipation to a selected range of small scales. The idea is to mimic the contribution of the unresolved small-scales by imposing a targeted numerical dissipation at small scales when evaluating the viscous term of the Navier-Stokes equations. The numerical technique is shown to behave similarly to the traditional eddy viscosity sub-filter scale models such as the classic or the dynamic Smagorinsky models. The results from the simulations are compared to experimental data for a Reynolds number scaled by the diameter equal to $Re_D$=1,000,000 and both the time-averaged stream wise velocity and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are showing a good overall agreement. At the end, suggestions for the amount of numerical dissipation required by our approach are made for the particular case of horizontal-axis turbine wakes.