Comparison of numerical methods applied to the flow over wall-mounted cubes

Latest developments in the simulation of turbulence by detached eddy simulation (DES) have suggested that this technique might be able to replace large eddy simulation (LES) within the next decade. The results of the flow past a square cylinder show that this approach is quite inexpensive compared to LES while capturing the most important features of the flow. This study extends the range of applications of DES towards a fully unsteady three-dimensional case with strong streamline curvature, which is known to be a major problem for Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equation (RANS) methods. The case considered is the turbulent flow over wall-mounted cubes at a Reynolds number of Re=1.3×104. The results demonstrate that DES is able to capture the most dominant flow patterns like LES, while RANS only gives a only a poor representation of the unsteady flow phenomena.