Detached Eddy Simulation:

There were several difficulties associated with the use of the standard LES models, particularly in
near-wall regions. This has lead to the development of several hybrid models. One such model is
the Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) model. DES is a modification of a RANS model in which the
model switches to a sub grid scale formulation in regions fine enough for LES calculations.
Regions near solid boundaries and where the turbulent length scale is less than the maximum
grid dimension are assigned the RANS mode of solution. As the turbulent length scale exceeds
the grid dimension, the regions are solved using the LES mode. Therefore the grid resolution is
not as demanding as pure LES, thereby considerably cutting down the cost of the computation.
Though DES was initially formulated for the Spalart-Allmaras model, it can be implemented with
other RANS models, by appropriately modifying the length scale which is explicitly or implicitly
involved in the RANS model. So while Spalart-Allmaras model based DES acts as LES with a
wall model, DES based on other models behave as a hybrid RANS-LES model. Grid generation
is more complicated than for a simple RANS or LES case. DES is a non-zonal approach and
provides a single smooth velocity field across the RANS and the LES regions of the solution.

The transport equation for the turbulent kinetic viscosity from Spalart-Allmaras model is given by:

The same equation is used as the RANS closure near wall and the LES subgrid
scale model away from the wall. The switch between RANS and LES is made by :

This model attempts to treat near-wall regions in a RANS-like manner, and treat the rest of the
flow in an LES-like manner. The model was originally formulated by replacing the distance
function

in the Spalart-Allmaras model with a modified distance function. The

constant and

is a

is the largest dimension of the grid cell. This modified distance function causes

the model to behave as a RANS model in regions close to walls, and in a Smagorinsky-like
manner away from the walls.
The DES approach may be used with any turbulence model that has an appropriately
defined turbulence length scale and is a sufficiently localized model. In practice, more
programming is needed than simply changing the calculation of the length scale. Many

implementations of the DES approach allow for regions to be explicitly designated as RANS or
LES regions, overruling the distance function calculation. Also, many implementations use
different differencing in RANS regions and LES regions.