Computation of mean drag for bluff body problems using adaptive DNS/LES

We compute the time average of the drag in two benchmark bluff body problems: a surface mounted cube at Reynolds number 40000, and a square cylinder at Reynolds number 22000, using adaptive DNS/LES. In adaptive DNS/LES the Galerkin least-squares finite element method is used, with adaptive mesh refinement until a given stopping criterion is satisfied. Both the mesh refinement criterion and the stopping criterion are based on a posteriori error estimates of a given output of interest, in the form of a space-time integral of a computable residual multiplied by a dual weight, where the dual weight is obtained from solving an associated dual problem computationally, with the data of the dual problem coupling to the output of interest. No filtering is used, and in particular no Reynolds stresses are introduced. We thus circumvent the problem of closure, and instead we estimate the error contribution from subgrid modeling a posteriori, which we find to be small. We are able to predict the mean drag with an estimated tolerance of a few percent using about 105 mesh points in space, with the computational power of a PC.