Assessment of Wall Modeled Large-Eddy Simulation of Large Experimental Facilities

High-fidelity large-eddy simulations of high Reynolds number flows in large wind and water tunnels become infeasible without wall modeling. In these facilities, turbulent boundary layers grow and may be subject to wall curvature. We consider two well-documented test cases of large facilities in this study. First, is the empty test section of the William B. Morgan Large Cavitation Channel. The 72 m long facility includes a unique, high-curvature inlet nozzle after the first turn and a long outlet diffuser separated by a 100 ft long test section with a cross-sectional area of approximately 100 sq ft. The BeVERLI Hill case features a wall-mounted hill configuration in the center of a 12 m long wind tunnel. We employ the curvilinear immersed boundary method with large-eddy simulation to model the turbulence. Due to high curvature in the boundary conditions, the simplifying equilibrium turbulent boundary layer assumption is invalid. We assess and validate several wall models including an equilibrium wall stress model, a volume-averaged wall model, and a non-equilibrium boundary layer wall model. The velocity profiles and energy spectra are compared and errors in the wall models are quantified.