Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, 35 (1990) 129-147 129

Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam - - Printed in The Netherlands

N U M E R I C A L S I M U L A T I O N OF T U R B U L E N T FLOW OVER
S U R F A C E - M O U N T E D O B S T A C L E S WITH S H A R P E D G E S A N D
CORNERS

FRANK BAETKE* and HEINRICH WERNER

Institut fi~r StrOmungsmechanik, Technische Universiti~t Mi~nchen, D-8000 Mi~nchen 2
(F.R.G.)
HANS WENGLE#
Institut f~r StrSmungsmechanik und Aerodynamik, Universiti~t der Bundeswehr Mi~nchen,
LRT/WE7, D-8014 Neubiberg (F.R.G.)
(Received January 5, 1990 )

Summary

Results from numerical simulations of turbulent flow around a surface-mounted cube and over
a surface-mounted square rib are presented. The first problem is treated by solving the Reynolds
equations together with the standard k-¢ turbulence model, for 0 ° and 45 ° orientation of the flow
obstacle, in uniform and boundary layer incident flow. The second problem is solved by applying
the concept of large-eddy simulation. In both calculation concepts, sufficient spatial resolution is
essential to get satisfying agreement with experimental data in the critical flow regimes, e.g. above
the top face of the flow obstacles. The computations based on large-eddy simulation are very
expensive but can provide excellent agreement of the numerical results with the experimental data
for the second-order statistics.

1. Introduction

The numerical simulation of high Reynolds number turbulent flow over and
around flow obstacles represents an important aspect of the activities in the
field of wind engineering. A surface-mounted rib or a cube, with sharp edges
and corners, can serve as a prototype of a building. To study the resulting
turbulent flow field, with separation and reattachment of the flow, numerical
simulations can be carried out using two basically different concepts to provide
a numerical solution. The first concept is based on the solution of the Rey-
nolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations for the mean flow field together with
a turbulence model. A two-equation model of turbulence is considered to be
the minimum requirement for a sufficiently accurate representation of the to-

*Present address: CONVEX Computer G.m.b.H., Schatzbogen 54, D-8000 Munich 82, F.R.G.
tTo whom correspondence should be sent.

0167-6105/90/$03.50 © 1990--Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.

130

tal effect of turbulent velocity fluctuations on the mean flow. In this paper we
selected the standard k-~ turbulence model. The second concept, large-eddy
simulation (LES), is based on the solution of the basic Navier-Stokes equa-
tions, averaged over the minimum grid cell which can be resolved on a given
computer. The effect of the non-resolvable motion on the grid-scale flow field
is taken into account by a subgrid-scale (SGS) turbulence model. In this paper
we selected as the SGS model the so-called Smagorinsky-Lilly model. The
LES concept allows one to evaluate directly the Reynolds shear stresses on the
grid scale, and the SGS contributions are negligible away from rigid walls (with
diminishing importance near the wall if the grid resolution is improved).
Therefore the LES concept makes it possible to provide information for tur-
bulence modellers working with the first concept. In addition, LES always pro-
vides a three-dimensional and time-dependent database which can be evalu-
ated to give new insights into the complex interactions of large-scale structures
in turbulent flows around obstacles.
Previous numerical work by Hirt et al. [ 1 ] considered a cube normal and at
45 ° orientation to the incident flow, solving the Reynolds equations together
with an arbitrary eddy viscosity. A k-e turbulence model together with hybrid
discretization of the convective terms have been applied in the doctoral thesis
of Vasilic-Melling [2], and the results were compared with the experimental
data of Castro and Robins [ 3 ] for a cube normal to the upstream flow. A recent
paper by Paterson and Apelt [4 ] includes results from a computation using a
k-e turbulence model and hybrid discretization, and the results are compared
with the data in ref. 3 for a cube with a simulated atmospheric boundary layer
serving as incident flow normal to the front face of the cube.
The LES concept was applied for the first time by Murakami et al. [5] to
calculate the flow over a periodic arrangement of cubes in a simulated atmos-
pheric boundary layer, i.e. applying periodic boundary conditions in the main
flow direction.
Recent numerical solutions of the Reynolds equations together with a k-e
turbulence model for a square rib on the bottom of a plate channel are available
from Kessler et al. [6]. First-order upstream and central differencing (second
order) together with Richardson extrapolation are used to estimate numerical
solution errors. Then, in comparison with the experimental data [7], a clear
separation between pure numerical errors and turbulence model deficiencies
could be achieved.
Solutions from an LES for a periodic arrangement of square ribs have been
obtained by Kobayashi et al. [8].
In this paper the flow problems treated are the flow around a cube and the
flow over a square rib. These cases have been selected because detailed exper-
imental data are available from Castro and Robins [3] (for turbulent flow
around a cube in uniform as well as in simulated atmospheric boundary layer
flow for a Reynolds number Re between 3 X 104 and 105) and from Dimaczek
 131

et al. [ 7 ] (for flow over a cross-wind square rib mounted on the floor of a plate
channel for a Reynolds number Re of about 42500, based on bulk velocity and
obstacle height). The first problem, a cube normal and at 45 ° to the incident
flow (Section 2.1 ), will be solved on the basis of the Reynolds equations to-
gether with the standard k-~ turbulence model. The second problem, a square
rib on the bottom of a plate channel (Section 2.2), will be solved by applying
the LES concept, using as inflow condition the results from a large-eddy sim-
ulation for a fully developed channel flow.

2. Application of numerical simulation to wind engineering problems

2.1. Turbulent flow around a cube

2.1.1. Governing equations and turbulence model

The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations have been solved in a time-
dependent manner together with the continuity equation for constant fluid
density. To parametrize the total effect of turbulent motions on the mean flow
field, the k-~ turbulence model in its standard form is used, as developed by
Launder et al. [9].

2.1.2. Geometry, boundary conditions and interpolation of exchange

coefficients
A surface-mounted cube has been selected as a prototype of a 3D building.
The coordinate system used and the geometry of the computational domain
are given in Fig. 1. Two additional layers of basic cells beyond the wall bound-
aries were necessary to implement the quadratic upstream differencing scheme
for the convective terms. On the side and top boundaries of the computational
domain, velocities normal to the boundaries and gradients of tangential veloc-
ities were set to zero (slip conditions). For cube orientation normal to the
incident flow we made use of the symmetry of the problem. For the cases with
45 ° orientation, at the two inflow faces BFRO and BRGT, the inflow condition
w a s GIN = 1/21/2 and VIN = 1/21/2 respectively. On the bottom boundary of the
computational domain and on all cube faces in the flow field, the local wall
friction was always evaluated via the so-called "logarithmic law of the wall".
A non-uniform staggered grid was used. The basic computational cells serve
as control volumes for the conservation of mass and for the transport equations
of turbulence energy k and dissipation rate e. In the centre P of a basic control
volume, the dependent variables kp and ee are defined, as well as the pressure
Pe and a general exchange coefficient Fp. The three velocity components Up,
Vp and Wp are defined at the side faces of a basic cell. These locations are the
centres of the three momentum control volumes shifted in the x, y and z direc-
tions by half of the corresponding width of the basic cell. For example, Figs. 2
and 3 show typical U-momentum cells. Wall boundary conditions at sharp
132

/
/
/ -----

R( i / . . . . . .
B
l ,tr,
]

q
::l

t
x

Fig. 1. Geometry of the computational domain.

convex corners (see Fig. 3 ) must be formulated with care since they can strongly
influence flow separation. For example, the total flux across the bottom face
of the U-momentum cell above a convex corner (Fig. 3 ) was evaluated as the
sum of the diffusive flux across the wall part (which is taken into account by
an additional source term) and the diffusive flux across the open part. The
situation can be handled numerically by use of a harmonic averaging procedure
 133

0 -- O 0
UT

ut

UW Fp _ _ Up FE _
UE UEE
--~ 0 ----~

WB -
- -- u b _ WEB
/ / / / / / . [//////, " / / / / / A / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

%
OFB 0 FEB 0

z ~ WBB

I UB B
O 0 O
~ I m - X

Fig. 2. U - m o m e n t u m cell a t h o r i z o n t a l walls.

0 ~ 0 O

L--:---------JLit - -
UW [" Up U_ UEE
p- --+-~ ~ r E ~ o -
l
WB ~ ub ~ WEB
"/////////'//////// /

/'~ UB F
O rB ---,-- O EB O
/
¢ I

/~,UBB
O -~- O O

~-- x
Fig. 3. U - m o m e n t u m cell a t a c o n v e x c o r n e r .

for the turbulent exchange coefficient, which reads in the case demonstrated
in Fig. 3 as follows:
F~ F~ F~ F ~
F ~ - F ~ + F~ t F~ + F~B
If F is set to a very small negative value inside rigid walls (to characterize
134

the rigid walls), this averaging procedure allows autovectorization of the re-
sulting computer code for rather complicated building forms (for further de-
tails see ref. 10). This type of interpolation of exchange coefficients was orig-
inally proposed by Patankar [11 ] for thermal problems.

2.1.3. Numerical solution method

In addition to well-known features such as finite differences on a staggered
grid, explicit time advancement (of first order ) and simultaneous pressure and
velocity corrections (point by point), a special formulation was developed for
the pressure iteration which is fully autovectorizable on a vector computer (for
details see ref. 10). With the resulting algorithm, the CPU time on a CRAY X-
MP could be reduced by a factor of 15 in comparison with a CDC CYBER 175B
(a scalar machine). The central difference approximation was used for the
diffusive terms, and the computer code developed allows different options
(central, upstream, hybrid or quadratic upstream) for the discretization of the
convective terms. For the results shown in this paper we always used quadratic
upstream discretization for the convective terms of the momentum equations
and hybrid differencing for the convection terms of the transport equations for
k and e.

2.1.4. Discussion of results and comparison with experimental data

Blocking effect. The distance Lx_ from the centre of the cube to the inflow
face BFRO of the computational domain (Fig. 1 ), the distances Ly+ and Lv_
to the side faces BRGT and BLFT respectively and the vertical width L~ of the
computational domain have been finally selected on the basic of numerical
experiments to eliminate any significant influence of these distances on the
pressure distribution on the cube faces (see Fig. 4). The blockage ratio, defined
as the ratio of the frontal area of the cube to the vertical cross-sectional area
of the computational domain, was about 3%.
Cube normal to the upstream flow. The flow normal to the frontal face of the
cube creates a positive pressure zone on the front side (BFRO) and negative
zones on the roof (BTOP), lee (BBAC) and lateral (BRGT, BLFT) sides.
The pressure differences induce bending of the mean streamlines, secondary
flow motions and separation of the flow. In the regions of strong gradients of
the mean flow, large amounts of turbulence energy are created. In case A (uni-
form upstream flow with very small turbulence intensity) the mean flow does
not reattach on the roof of the building after having separated at the leading
edge. Reattachment occurs in a reattachment zone located somewhere between
two and three building heights downstream on the ground surface. The pres-
sure gradients near the leading edges are very strong. A small horseshoe vortex
wraps itself around the cube. This vortex only exists because of the presence
of a thin upstream boundary layer in case A. In case B (upstream flow is a
thick boundary layer) this horseshoe vortex is much thicker. The major dif-
 135

4.0

TMTr TT " F
I "I
3.5]

3.0 I :
-
2.S
i I • !I .......... t I
! i I
I ! I • IIIIllItHIltltIft ........ i !
2.0
I, Ii " 1• i IIII!HIItlIHII.I
IIII/IHlllII/ll
............
I . . . . . . . . . . I 4
I .S! I r ; ' - I 4 i i.l.l.i-{.I J I +.FI.l.I I i • I I
I : [ ! I: ! : : + :l:i t ":":" : ::: ":+':":I:::"":" : ' ! I
i !1 IIIH lt:I~ :• : i i I', I
: I
! t I I
.0
-4 0 -3.0 -~.0 -1.0 -.0 1.0 "20 3.0 4.0 S 0 6.0 X

• I i , L ¸ 11!IHH!lli~J ¸
_.3 J~ ~ ~lIIIllHliIIilIIJI--

ii , ILt
ltHlilltlLltl11L
+ + i ~-- ,_~___~._ t~.
-+.'{
3 01
-+.0 -3.0
+
-2.0
'
- 9 -o I.o
II
• --
2. 3.o +o
~i
so 0 ×

%, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(P
; o I / ' ~

~!!
.s31 i /
~+",-~'f " '

00

-.3
- S

-I 0

-~ .3 i
_,s . ! i
-~ .B i T

-2.0 FRO
0 G .$ 10 I S 20 2.S 3.0
FR0 ?0P BAC

Fig. 4. Influence of size of c o m p u t a t i o n a l domain on surface pressure of the cube.

ference between the two cases is that in case B the shear layer separating at
the leading horizontal edge reattaches on the roof and the pressure coefficient
recovers to a value close to zero.
Results of numerical simulations of the flow fields just described are com-
pared with the experimental data in Fig. 5. Taking advantage of the symmetry
of the problem, the grid shown in Fig. 4 has been used for the present case
(cube normal to upstream flow) with Nx×Nv×Nz=30× 1 4 × 19 grid points
136
(a)
Z
4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

Y
-~,,00 -3.00 -2.00 -I.O0 ,00 1,00 2,00 3.00 A,O0 5.00 8,00 X
U PROFILES IN THE PLANE Y = .00 {J=TB} - - = 2.00

- I .00

-2.00

-5.00

~4.00
-¢,00 -5.00 -2.00 - I .00 .00 1.00 2.00 3.00 C.O0 5.00 5.00 X
U PROFILES IN THE PLANE Z = .55 {K= BI - - = 2.00

CP
1.00

.50
\
t
• O0

-.50

-1.00

-1.50

I ~RO " "

-2.00
I
• 00 .50 .00 I .50 2.00 2.50 3.00
FRO TOP SAC

CP I
1.00

.50
I
.00

1
-.50

I
- I .00

-I .So

FRO
-2.00
.00 .50 1.00 1.50 2.oo 2.50 3.0o
FRO RGT 8AC

Fig. 5 (continued).
 137

(b)

-¢.0 -3.0 -?.0 -I .0 ,0 t .0 2.0 S.O 4.0 S.O 6.0 X

PROFILES IN THE PLANE Y .21 IJ-161 2.00

--4- - -
4
+

1 I,
-3.0 " -2.0 -I .0 -.0 .0 2,0 3.0 &.O S,O 6.0 X
PROFILES IN THE PLANE Z • 55 (K- 81 - - ' ~ . 0 0

rP
i 0
T

0.0 :-~+ .+ + 4- + ÷~. 4 ~

:i::l:+
+ *~~
- S

-I .0 - -

-I S

t-Ro
-7.0
0.0 .S 1.0 I ,5 ?.0 ? S 3.0
FRO TOP BAC

CF
1.o I

.S

I
O.0

-.S

- I .0

- I .S

FRO
-?.0
0.0 .S I .0 I .S ?.0 ? S
FRO RGT BAC

Fig. 5. Cube normal to incident flow: (a) case A-uniform incident flow with low turbulence inten-
sity; (b) case B-boundary layer incident flow with high turbulence intensity.
138

(not counting grid points in the additional two layers of basic cells for the
boundary conditions). For case A, excellent agreement of the numerical sim-
ulation with the experimental data could be reached for the dimensionless
pressure difference C~= 2 (p--Pref)/flUref2, with the reference pressure Pref and
the reference velocity Ureftaken from the inflow cross-section at cube height.
From the results of case B it is obvious that the calculated pressure coefficient
does not recover as quickly as the measured one. The calculated flow field does
not separate at all from the top surface of the cube. The experiment shows that
the separation bubble is very small (its thickness is about one-tenth of the
cube height), and obviously the spatial resolution chosen for the numerical
simulation is still too coarse to capture this small recirculation zone on the top
surface of the cube.
Cube at 45 ° to the upstream flow. When the flow approaches the cubic build-
ing at an angle of 45 ° to the vertical building faces, two strong counter-rotating
vortices are generated at the swept-back leading edges. These vortices are sim-
ilar to the vortices shed by a delta wing and have a dominant influence on the
mean flow field above the top surface and in the wake of the cube. Just behind
each vertical trailing edge of the cube, two vertical counter-rotating vortices
are generated by rolling-up of the shear layers separated from the side surfaces.
The horizontal and vertical vortices together create an extremely complex wake
structure. Unfortunately, from the experiments of Castro and Robins it is dif-
ficult to distinguish any region of reattachment downstream of the cube.
The numerical simulation of the 45 ° case is much more difficult to accom-
plish than the simulation of the cube with an approach flow normal to the
frontal face. To resolve properly the vortices generated at the swept-back lead-
ing edges of the top surface, a dense distribution of the grid points immediately
above the top surface had to be chosen. This special choice was essential to get
satisfactory agreement between experiment and numerical simulation. Figure
6 shows a vertical plane of the distribution of Nx X Ny X N z = 33 X 33 X 24 basic
cells in the flow field which we finally used for the calculations (case A only).
Figure 6 also shows the pressure distribution on the top surface on a line from
one corner to the other, for different cases of spatial resolution NTX X NTV
above the top surface. For the case with NTX X NTy = 8 X 8 cubic control cells
above the top surface, no horizontal vortices developed and the corresponding
pressure distribution did not even qualitatively agree with the experiment. With
an increasing number NTx X NTy of control cells the pressure distribution im-
proved significantly. Finally, a further improvement could be reached by using
NTX X Nwv = 14 X 14 grid points above the top surface and by lowering the ver-
tical distance of the grid points next to the top surface to about 50% of the
horizontal distance. In the experiments of Castro and Robins the frontal stag-
nation point was switching intermittently from one side of the vertical leading
edge to the other side. Because of this unstable situation there was a distinct
asymmetry in the pressure distribution along lines indicated in Fig. 6 and
 139

Z
4.00

3.00

2.00 , ,
I I
II I I ! :!:]:!:!~]:!:!: !: !
i i
1 .00 I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II

.00
-2:oo :oo 2:oo 4:oo x
BACK

t
X /

VALUE5 OF C?
-.io00
-.SO00
\4 //
. . . . . 5000
. . . . . .7000
. . . . . . .6000
.......... .~000

// \
\ /-~/
; / 1 --~
\\:/,~-,
\ \
............
-I.0000
1.!000
-I.2000
-}.3000

" ~ ~ , r?__-~-~.~ j.

Cp
1.00

.50
L."-->-7
.00

-.50

// I
- I .00 -~.~+ ~ -..

-I ,50

-2.00
-~50 O0 ~50 .00 ,50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.QO
m ~ : FRO TOP BAC
LFT RGT

Fig. 6. C u b e a t 4 5 ° to i n c i d e n t flow ( e a s e A ) : " - - ' , N T x X N T y = 8 X 8 ; .... ,NTx×NTv=12×12;

. . . . ..... N T X × N T y = 16 × 16, Az = Ax; - - , NTX × N T r = 14 × 14, Az = 0.5Ax; O , + , m e a s u r e m e n t s of
C a s t r o and Robins [3].

therefore both experimental sets of data are included. Isolines of equal pressure
on the top face (see Fig. 6 ) give some indication of the strong influence of the
two horizontal vortices generated at the two swept-back leading edges.
140

2.2. Turbulent flow over a square rib on the bottom of a plate channel

2.2.1. Governing equations and subgrid-scale turbulence model

The governing equations describing the resolvable flow quantities (grid scale,
GS) are derived from the integral conservation equations for mass and mo-
mentum applied to a finite grid volume A V= AxAyAz following the "volume
balance method" of Schumann [12]. From this it follows that GS quantities
of the three velocity components Us ( a = 1, 2, 3 ) are defined as averages over
the corresponding surfaces AA~ (c~ = 1, 2, 3 ) of the grid volume AV.
The subgrid-scale (SGS) stresses arising from the non-linear convection
terms are evaluated by the so-called Smagorinsky-Lilly SGS model (with
cl =0.1 ) which relates the subgrid stresses to the GS velocity field via an eddy
viscosity model. In grid volumes next to walls we used as mixing length the
smaller value of ~x~ and 0.1 (AxAyAz) 1/3 respectively (x~ is the corresponding
distance normal to a wall).

2.2.2. Geometry, inflow condition and boundary conditions

A surface-mounted square rib has been selected as a prototype of a very long
(2D) building. The geometry of the computational domain is shown in Fig. 7.
Measured in units of the reference height H (height of the square rib) of the
problem, the dimensions of the computational domain were
(X,Y,Z)=(19.0,4.0,2.0), and for the results presented here we used
(Nx,Ny,Nz) = (160,64,64) grid points. The y direction (with an equidistant
distribution of grid points) is the nominally homogeneous direction of the
problem. In the x and z directions a non-uniform distribution of grid points
was used with a minimum width of Ax2 = Az2 = 1.25 X 10 -2 next to rigid walls
(see Fig. 7). At the inflow section we used at each time step the instantaneous
flow field of an LES result of the corresponding (fully developed) channel flow.
The boundary conditions at horizontal and vertical walls were specified by
assuming that the instantaneous velocity component tangential and at grid
points closest to the wall is proportional and in phase with the instantaneous
wall shear stress. The coefficient of proportionality is evaluated from inte-
grating a power-law description of the local mean velocity profile in the control
volume next to the wall, instead of using the logarithmic law of the wall which
is not valid anyway in recirculating flow regions [13]. The two different for-
mulations exhibited no significant differences for the case of a fully developed
channel flow. If the first grid point is located in the viscous sublayer (i.e. wall
distance less than 11.5 wall units ), the linear law of the wall is used to evaluate
the coefficient of proportionality. For the programme implementation of the
boundary conditions at the sharp edges we used the same technique as de-
scribed in Section 2.1 and in ref. 10.
 141

x
t.O
×

a~

.±

~'~t- ~ ~'~
z×

I I
142

2.2.3. Numerical solution method

The governing equations are solved numerically on the non-uniform stag-
gered grid using second-order finite differencing in time and space (central
differencing for convection and time-lagged diffusion terms). The numerical
integration in time proceeds in cycles of explicit steps starting with Euler step,
followed by approximately 50 leap-frog steps and ending with an averaging
step. The quadratic upstream differencing used for the discretization of the
convective terms in the solution of the Reynolds equations (Section 2.1 ) had
to be abandoned because of the still too strong numerical diffusion created by
that discretization, which (though of second order) significantly influences
the strength of fluctuations on the grid scale of the large-eddy simulation. The
solution method for the pressure-velocity coupling was the same (point-by-
point iteration) as used in Section 2.1. After an initial phase, the numerical
solution of the governing equations delivers the GS quantities of the three
velocity components and the pressure as a function of time and 3D space. Then
a large amount of computing time must be spent to evaluate the statistics of
the turbulent flow field (e.g. mean flow, second-order correlations) by time
averaging and (in this paper) by making use of the single homogeneous direc-
tion available (perpendicular to the main flow direction). For the present re-
sults we started with averaging after about 7.5 reference times and collected
the statistics over about 5.5 reference times, where the reference time is defined
as the time a tracer particle needs to travel with bulk velocity over a distance
of two obstacle heights.

2.2.4. Discussion of LES results and comparison with experimental data

There is strong vertical and horizontal acceleration in the flow field in the
neighbourhood of the horizontal leading edge of the obstacle, separation of the
flow at the leading edge and reattachment of the instantaneous flow on the top
face of the rib and far downstream on the bottom plate. A separated curve shear
layer is created which bounds the reverse flow region above and behind the
obstacle and which has many features different from those of the classical
plane mixing layer between two streams [14].
The direct results from an LES are the time-dependent and three-dimen-
sional data fields for the grid-scale quantities of velocity components and pres-
sure. Figure 8 shows a sample of the instantaneous flow field. By averaging in
time (and over the homogeneous y direction across the main flow direction),
the mean flow field is obtained and the fluctuating field can then be evaluated
as the difference of the two fields. From the fluctuating fields we evaluated the
r.m.s, values for the velocity fluctuations and the Reynolds stress - ~uw. Some
results are shown in Fig. 9 for selected dimensionless X positions in a vertical
plane in the middle of the channel. From a comparison of the numerical results
with the corresponding experiment carried out by Dimaczek et al. [ 7 ] we draw
the following conclusions.
 143

O.OE*O 1.0E*O ~.OE*O

- 2 . E}E*() I .OE+© ~ . OE +(? I .OE+(! I?.OE~ 0 3.0E+O 4.0E*

PL ANE 7 i . I 2

Fig. 8. Instantaneous flowfield: top, in vertical middle section of channel; bottom, in a horizontal
plane at height Z= 1.12.

( 1 ) The instantaneous flow field is (or course) reattaching in a time-depen-

dent manner on the top face of the rib, whereas the mean flow field is not
reattaching at all. Having increased the number of grid points from
( N x , N y , N z ) = (80,28,44) to ( N x , N y , N z ) = (160,64,64), the calculated mean
flow field no longer reattached, i.e. the number of grid points used within the
separation zone above the top face of the obstacle must be sufficiently large.
Furthermore, the calculated length XR of the recirculation zone behind the rib
increased from 6.4 to XR (num.) = 7.0; the corresponding experimental value
144

(a) (b)
z
i.o+*o

;.ii*o

i.+~.o
\ - I t ee ,o

16{,a

/o
,+[+o
; . ++*o

t+e.o
LeE'O
l.+e+o

0 o~-,

6 o(-,

o~-~

'c
: i o~ +o
, o(-o
t o ~(,o
-, ~¢.o

i l(.o +
i e(.0
+*e*o

~~--o °°°o°°:++,_/
l+(*o

1 .ilt*O ++ i+

I.IL-I

l.Olt-+

+o+-i

i.*1,1 l;Ol+l i <+i-I l.O[+l

z (c) 2~L,o
(d)
, e~.o soE.o

!/
/

7°
i ++~,o

Le~+o

A
4QE-I

~eL

. . . . . . e ee.o ........ i

*~\ • =~ \\\
/I I + ~\ • .~ \

1
..... I~l :/
I'+t °°""~ °°9 \ e e "

..... ':1/
.... lb" ~.OE*O 20E~I
"g
~ 0(-I E*.GE-t | OE-I i OE*O 00E+I2 2 QE-L + OE+I $.0E-I |.OE-i I.OE*G

Fig. 9. Comparison of large-eddy simulation with experiment: mean velocity ( U} ( O ) and ( W}

(*); r.m.s, fluctuations (u2} 1/2 ( [ ] ) and ( w e } 1/2 ( ~ ) , Reynolds shear stress - ( u w } ( + ) .
- - - , large-eddy simulation: (a) X = -0.3; (b) X=0.5; (c) X / X R = 0 . 6 , X=4.5 {exp.), X=4.0
( LES ); (d) X / X R = 1.0, X = 7.6 ( exp. ), X = 7.0 (LES). Length scale is obstacle height H, velocity
scale is cross-sectional average of inflow velocity field U (see Fig. 7 ).
 145

is XR (exp.) = 7.6 (measured in units of obstacle height from the middle of the
cross-section of the rib; see Fig. 7).
(2) If the LES results in the recirculation zone are compared with the ex-
periment (see Fig. 9) at the same relative position, X/XR(num.) and X/
XR (exp.) respectively, surprisingly good agreement is obtained for the r.m.s.
values of the velocity fluctuations and for the Reynolds stress (even in calcu-
lations with a significantly smaller number of grid points).
(3) There is some indication of a three-dimensional mean structure in the
flow field (e.g. in front of the obstacle ) which is confirmed by the experiment
[7]. Further details and additional results can be found in refs. 15 and 16.

3. G e n e r a l c o n c l u s i o n s and o u t l o o k on f u t u r e w o r k

Irrespective of different concepts for providing numerical solutions of tur-

bulent flow over sharp-edged obstacles, sufficient spatial resolution is essential
to obtain at least qualitative agreement with experiment in critical flow re-
gimes. In addition, high spatial resolution is essential to clearly separate dis-
cretization errors from deficiencies of the turbulence models used [6]. The
number and distribution of grid points for the examples presented in this paper
should be considered to satisfy just a minimum requirement.
For the case of turbulent flow over a 3D obstacle (square rib on the bottom
of a plate channel) the experimental data [ 7 ] as well as the large-eddy simu-
lation [ 15 ] give some indication of the existence of three-dimensionality of the
mean flow in the vicinity of the flow obstacle. As a consequence, 3D solutions
of the Reynolds equations for turbulent flow over a square rib (with suffi-
ciently large lateral extension) should be carried out. For the large-eddy sim-
ulations the corresponding consequence would be to collect the statistics by
time averaging only and to dispense with considering the lateral direction as a
homogeneous direction to improve the statistics.
The overall computational cost of the production runs for the results pre-
sented in this paper may serve as a rough measure for future calculations. For
the solution of the Reynolds equations (with the standard k-e turbulence
model) for turbulent flow around a cube we spent 1 h CRAY-1 CPU time for
the case with upstream flow normal to the cube and 20 h CRAY-1 CPU time
for the 45 ° case. For the large-eddy simulations of turbulent flow over a square
rib we used up a budget of 150 h of CPU time on a Fujitsu VP200. The over-
whelming amount of additional data gained in a large-eddy simulation is cer-
tainly worth the price, but to evaluate these data sets additional time and money
must be invested.
For the solution of practical wind engineering problems involving 3D mean
flow and complicated geometry, applications and improvements of complete
second-order closures of the Reynolds equations would be desirable. The ap-
plication of large-eddy simulation of turbulent flows involving general geom-
146

etry of flow obstacles a n d n o n - o r t h o g o n a l grids will p r o b a b l y r e a c h the limits

of p o w e r of the p r e s e n t - d a y c o m p u t e r s as well as t h e limits of c a p a c i t y of the
c o m p u t i n g c e n t r e s involved in h a n d l i n g a n d s t o r i n g files of e n o r m o u s size.

Acknowledgments

T h i s w o r k is c u r r e n t l y s u p p o r t e d b y t h e G e r m a n R e s e a r c h Society ( D F G ) ,
P r i o r i t y R e s e a r c h P r o g r a m , P r o j e c t NO. Ro 4 9 7 / 5 ( R S m e r / W e n g l e ) . We also
gratefully a c k n o w l e d g e the s u p p o r t b y t h e c o m p u t i n g c e n t e r of the Universit~it
der B u n d e s w e h r M i i n c h e n a n d b y t h e L e i b n i z - C o m p u t i n g C e n t e r of the Ba-
v a r i a n A c a d e m y of Sciences.

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