Wall-Modeled LES for Ship Hydrodynamics in Model Scale

A complete approach for wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) is demonstrated for the simulation of the flow around a bulk carrier in the model scale. Essential components of the method are an a-priori estimate of the thickness of the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) over the hull and to use an unstructured grid with the appropriate resolution relative to this thickness. Expressions from the literature for the scaling of the computational cost, in terms of the grid size, with Reynolds number, are adapted in this application. It is shown that WMLES is possible for model scale ship hydrodynamics, with ∼108 grid cells, which is a gain of at least one order of magnitude as compared with wall-resolving LES. For the canonical case of a flat-plate TBL, the effects of wall model parameters and grid cell topology on the predictive accuracy of the method are investigated. For the flat-plate case, WMLES results are compared with results from direct numerical simulation, RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes), and semi-empirical formulas. For the bulk carrier flow, WMLES and RANS are compared, but further validation is needed to assess the predictive accuracy of the approach.