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The large-eddy simulation technique was used to investigate the dynamics of unsteady flow separation on a flat-plate turbulent boundary layer. The unsteadiness was generated by imposing an oscillating, wall-normal velocity profile at the top of the computational domain, and a range of reduced frequencies ($k$), from a very rapid flutter-like motion to a slow quasi-steady oscillation, was studied. Ambrogi et al. (J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 945, 2022, A10) showed that the reduced frequency greatly affects the transient separation process, and at a frequency $k=1$ , the separation region became unstable and was advected periodically out of the domain. In this paper, we discuss the causes of the observed advection process and the effects of the unsteadiness on the second moments. The time evolution of turbulent kinetic energy, for instance, reveals that an advection-like phenomenon is also present at a very low reduced frequency, but its dynamic behaviour is completely different from that of the intermediate frequency ($k=1$). At the intermediate frequency the entire recirculation region is advected downstream, keeping its shape. The advected structure is rotational in nature, and moves at constant speed. In contrast, in the low-frequency case the advected fluid originates at the reattachment point, and the structure is shear-dominated. Particle pathlines reflect the fact that the flow at the low frequency is quasi-steady-state, but show peculiar differences at the intermediate frequency, in which the flow response to the freestream forcing depends on the particle positions in the wall-normal direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flow over alternating roughness strips oriented normally to the mean stream is studied using wall-modeled large-eddy simulations (WMLES) and improved delayed detached-eddy simulations (IDDES) (a hybrid method solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations near the wall and switching to large-eddy simulations (LES) in the core of the flow). The calculations are performed in an open-channel configuration. Various approaches are used to account for roughness by either modifying the wall boundary condition for WMLES or the model itself for IDDES or by adding a drag forcing term to the momentum equations. By comparing the numerical results with the experimental data, both methods with both roughness modifications are shown to reproduce the non-equilibrium effects, but noticeable differences are observed. The WMLES, although affected by the underlying equilibrium assumption, predicts the return to equilibrium of the skin friction in good agreement with the experiments. The velocity predicted by the IDDES does not have memory of the upstream conditions and recovers to the equilibrium conditions faster. Memory of the upstream conditions appears to be a critical factor for the accurate computational modeling of this flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The performance of wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) based on hybrid models, in which the inner region is modeled by Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation and the outer region is resolved by large-eddy simulation (LES), can make the application of LES attainable at high Reynolds numbers. In previous work by various authors, it was found that in most cases a buffer region exists between the RANS and LES zones, in which the velocity gradient is too high; this leads to an inaccurate prediction of the skin-friction coefficient. Artificially perturbing the RANS/LES interface has been demonstrated to be effective in removing the buffer region. In this work, WMLES has been performed with stochastic forcing at the interface, following the previous work by our group on two nonequilibrium complex flows. From the two flows studied, we conclude that the application of stochastic forcing results in improvements in the prediction of the skin-friction coefficient in the equilibrium regions of these flows, a better agreement with the experiments of the Reynolds stresses in the adverse pressure gradient and the recovery region, and a good agreement of the mean velocity field with experiments in the separation region. Some limitations of this method, especially in terms of CPU requirements, will be discussed.