A unified method of data assimilation and turbulence modeling for separated flows at high Reynolds numbers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified data assimilation and turbulence modeling method using an improved ensemble Kalman inversion to enhance high Reynolds number separated flow simulations, achieving better accuracy and stability.

Contribution

It proposes a novel combined approach integrating data assimilation with turbulence modeling via ensemble Kalman inversion for high Reynolds number flows.

Findings

Significantly reduced lift coefficient errors at high angles of attack.

Models generalize well to various flow conditions.

Enhanced stability and robustness of turbulence models.

Abstract

In recent years, machine learning methods represented by deep neural networks (DNN) have been a new paradigm of turbulence modeling. However, in the scenario of high Reynolds numbers, there are still some bottlenecks, including the lack of high-fidelity data and the convergence and stability problem in the coupling process of turbulence models and the RANS solvers. In this paper, we propose an improved ensemble kalman inversion method as a unified approach of data assimilation and turbulence modeling for separated flows at high Reynolds numbers. The trainable parameters of the DNN are optimized according to the given experimental surface pressure coefficients in the framework of mutual coupling between the RANS equations and DNN eddy-viscosity models. In this way, data assimilation and model training are combined into one step to get the high-fidelity turbulence models agree well with experiments efficiently. The effectiveness of the method is verified by cases of separated flows around airfoils(S809) at high Reynolds numbers. The results show that through joint assimilation of vary few experimental states, we can get turbulence models generalizing well to both attached and separated flows at different angles of attack. The errors of lift coefficients at high angles of attack are significantly reduced by more than three times compared with the traditional SA model. The models obtained also perform well in stability and robustness.