Simulation of turbulent flows with shocks employing subgrid-scale (SGS) filtering may encounter a loss of accuracy in the vicinity of a shock. This paper addresses the accuracy improvement of LES of turbulent flows in two ways: (a) from the SGS model standpoint and (b) from the numerical method improvement standpoint. In an internal report, Kotov et al. ( “High Order Numerical Methods for large eddy simulation (LES) of Turbulent Flows with Shocks”, CTR Tech Brief, Oct. 2014, Stanford University), we performed a preliminary comparative study of different approaches to reduce the loss of accuracy within the framework of the dynamic Germano SGS model. The high order low dissipative method of Yee & Sjögreen (2009) using local flow sensors to control the amount of numerical dissipation where needed is used for the LES simulation. The considered improved dynamics model approaches include applying the one-sided SGS test filter of Sagaut & Germano (2005) and/or disabling the SGS terms at the shock location. For Mach 1.5 and 3 canonical shock-turbulence interaction problems, both of these approaches show a similar accuracy improvement to that of the full use of the SGS terms. The present study focuses on a five levels of grid refinement study to obtain the reference direct numerical simulation (DNS) solution for additional LES SGS comparison and approaches. One of the numerical accuracy improvements included here applies Harten's subcell resolution procedure to locate and sharpen the shock, and uses a one-sided test filter at the grid points adjacent to the exact shock location.

The variable high-order multiblock overlapping (overset) grids method of Sjögreen & Yee [CiCP, Vol. 5, 2009] for a perfect gas has been extended to nonequilibrium flows. This work makes use of the recently developed high-order well-balanced shock-capturing schemes and their filter counterparts [Wang et al., J. Comput. Phys., 2009, 2010] that exactly preserve certain non-trivial steady state solutions of the chemical nonequilibrium governing equations. Multiscale turbulence with strong shocks and flows containing both steady and unsteady components is best treated by mixing of numerical methods and switching on the appropriate scheme in the appropriate subdomains of the flow fields, even under the multiblock grid or adaptive grid refinement framework. While low dissipative sixth- or higher-order shock-capturing filter methods are appropriate for unsteady turbulence with shocklets, second- and third- order shock-capturing methods are more effective for strong steady or nearly steady shocks in terms of convergence. It is anticipated that our variable high-order overset grid framework capability with its highly modular design will allow for an optimum synthesis of these new algorithms in such a way that the most appropriate spatial discretizations can be tailored for each particular region of the flow. In this paper some of the latest developments in single block high-order filter schemes for chemical nonequilibrium flows are applied to overset grid geometries. The numerical approach is validated on a number of test cases characterized by hypersonic conditions with strong shocks, including the reentry flow surrounding a 3D Apollo-like NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle that might contain mixed steady and unsteady components, depending on the flow conditions.

Three high order shock-capturing schemes are compared for large eddy simulations (LES) of temporally evolving mixing layers for different convective Mach numbers ranging from the quasi-incompressible regime to highly compressible supersonic regime. The considered high order schemes are fifth-order WENO (WENO5), seventh-order WENO (WENO7) and the associated eighth-order central spatial base scheme with the dissipative portion of WENO7 as a nonlinear post-processing filter step (WENO7fi). This high order nonlinear filter method of Yee & Sjögreen is designed for accurate and efficient simulations of shock-free compressible turbulence, turbulence with shocklets and turbulence with strong shocks with minimum tuning of scheme parameters. The LES results by WENO7fi using the same scheme parameter agree well with experimental results compiled by Barone et al., and published direct numerical simulations (DNS) work of Rogers & Moser and Pantano & Sarkar, whereas results by WENO5 and WENO7 compare poorly with experimental data and DNS computations.

The space-time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method is proposed for solving a conservative interface-capturing reduced model of compressible two-fluid flows. The flow equations are the bulk equations, combined with mass and energy equations for one of the two fluids. The latter equation contains a source term for accounting the energy exchange. The one and two-dimensional flow models are numerically investigated in this manuscript. The CE/SE method is capable to accurately capture the sharp propagating wavefronts of the fluids without excessive numerical diffusion or spurious oscillations. In contrast to the existing upwind finite volume schemes, the Riemann solver and reconstruction procedure are not the building block of the suggested method. The method differs from the previous techniques because of global and local flux conservation in a space-time domain without resorting to interpolation or extrapolation. In order to reveal the efficiency and performance of the approach, several numerical test cases are presented. For validation, the results of the current method are compared with other finite volume schemes.