Artificial and Eddy Viscosity in Large Eddy Simulation Part 1: Temporal and Spatial Schemes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to quantify artificial dissipation in large eddy simulations, analyzing the effects of numerical schemes and mesh refinement on turbulence modeling accuracy.

Contribution

It proposes a residual-based approach to measure artificial dissipation and evaluates the impact of different temporal and spatial discretizations on LES accuracy.

Findings

Artificial viscosity can both produce and dissipate TKE.

Symmetry-preserving spatial schemes outperform standard schemes.

Optimal dissipation levels improve Reynolds stress predictions.

Abstract

We propose a novel method to quantify artificial dissipation in large eddy simulation. Here, artificial dissipation is defined as the residual of the discrete turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) equation. This method is applied to turbulent channel flow at Reynolds number 180 and 550 using a minimum-dissipation model within the OpenFOAM framework, employing both symmetry-preserving and standard OpenFOAM discretizations. Our analysis reveals that artificial viscosity can both produce and dissipate TKE. To quantify the interaction between sub-grid-scale model contributions and numerical error, we introduce viscous activity parameters, which also allow for evaluating the balance between molecular and non-molecular viscosity. Examining temporal discretization schemes, we find that all methods can deliver accurate flow predictions if an appropriate time step is used. For very small time steps, Forward-Euler is more efficient and accurate than Crank-Nicolson, though a better balance of accuracy and computational efficiency for larger time steps, making it preferable for large-scale applications. On collocated meshes, Van Kan's pressure correction method predicts better results than Chorin's. Our spatial discretization study shows that the symmetry-preserving scheme outperforms standard OpenFOAM schemes, as excessive artificial errors from spatial discretization can suppress the LES model. For the symmetry-preserving scheme, both eddy and artificial viscosities vary similarly, with eddy viscosity being dominant. The role of artificial viscosity changes with mesh refinement: on coarse meshes, it mainly dissipates TKE, while on finer meshes, it can produce TKE, counteracting eddy viscosity. The most accurate Reynolds shear stress predictions occur when non-molecular dissipation is nearly zero. For accurate mean flow kinetic energy, larger non-molecular dissipation is needed on finer meshes.