Large-eddy simulation of a supersonic boundary layer using an unstructured grid

A Mach 3 adiabatic flat plate turbulent boundary layer is studied using large-eddy simulation (LES), The filtered compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved on a three-dimensional unstructured grid of tetrahedral cells. A compressible extension of the rescaling-reintroducing process of Lund et al. (Lund, T., Wu, X., and Squires, K., Generation of Turbulent Inflow Data for Spatially-Developing Boundary Layer Simulations, Journal of Compartational Physics, Vol. 140, No. 2, 1998, pp. 233-2583 is developed to generate the inflow conditions. The effect of the subgrid-scale motion is incorporated using two approaches, namely, monotone integrated LES (MILES) and the Smagorinsky subgrid-scale model. A detailed grid refinement study is performed. The statistical predictions (friction velocity, adiabatic wall temperature, mean velocity profile, normal Reynolds stress, and Reynolds shear stress) obtained from MILES are in close agreement viith experimental data and direct numerical simulation. The results indicate that the subgrid-scale effects can be adequately modeled using MILES without the need for the Smagorinsky model.