The Use of Solution Adaptive Grid for Modeling Small Scale Turbulent Structures

The use of large eddy simulation (LES) is computationally intensive and various studies demonstrated the considerable range of vortex scales to be resolved in an LES type of simulation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of a dynamic grid adaptation (DGA) algorithm. Despite many developments related to adaptive methods and adaptive grid strategies, the use of DGA in the context of turbulence modeling is still not well understood, and various profound problems with DGA in relation to turbulence modeling are still present. The work presented in this paper focuses on the numerical modeling of flow around a circular cylinder in the sub-critical flow regime at a Reynolds number of $3.9∙103$⁠. LES simulations with conventional mesh and DGA have been performed with various mesh sizes, refinement criteria and re-meshing frequency, to investigate the effects of re-meshing on the flow field prediction. The results indicate that the turbulent flow field is sensitive to modifications in the mesh and re-meshing frequency, and it is suggested that the re-meshing in the unsteady flow region is affecting the onset of small scale flow motions in the free shear layer.