COMPUTATION OF BOUNDARY LAYER TRANSITION USING LOW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER TURBULENCE MODELS

Abstract

A literature review shows that, for the commonly used turbulence models, the predicted location of boundary layer transition is very sensitive to the initial profiles of turbulence quantities and starting location of calculation. To eliminate these effects, two independent solution approaches are proposed: (1) to solve the boundary layer equations over a flat plate with the starting location of calculation very close to the leading edge of the plate, and (2) to solve the elliptic Navier-Stokes equations over the whole plate, including the leading edge and some region upstream of it. Computations show both approaches lead to identical results. Three well-known low-Reynolds-number (LRN) turbulence models are evaluated with respect to the transition on a flat plate. None of the models are able to predict the quantitative aspects of transition correctly without an ad hoc adjustment. A satisfactory new turbulence model is presented in a companion paper.