Implementation and verification of the resolved Reynolds stress transport equations in OpenFOAM

2025/11/06 by Mario Javier Rincón, Rincón, Mario J., Christoffer Hansen +5
Chemical Engineering · Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Heat Transfer and Optimization #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2511.04497

openalex publication_date 2025/11/06 · openalex created_date 2025/11/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The analysis of the Reynolds Stress Transport Equation (RSTE) provides fundamental physical insights that are essential for the development and validation of advanced turbulence models. However, a comprehensive and validated tool for computing the complete RSTE budget is absent in the widely-used open-source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) framework, OpenFOAM. This work addresses this gap by presenting the implementation and a posteriori validation of a function object library for calculating all terms of the resolved RSTE budget in Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). The library is applied to simulate two canonical wall-bounded turbulent flows: a channel flow and a pipe flow, both at a friction Reynolds number of Re_τ=180. The implementation is validated through a mesh refinement study where the results from the LES simulations are systematically compared against high-fidelity Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) data. The computed budget terms are observed to converge systematically towards the DNS reference data. This validation demonstrates that the implemented library accurately captures the intricate balance of all budget terms. This contribution provides the open-source CFD community with a powerful utility for detailed turbulence analysis, thereby facilitating deeper physical understanding and accelerating the development of next-generation turbulence models.

Citations

• A generalisable data-augmented turbulence model with progressive and interpretable corrections for incompressible wall-bounded flows
• Wall-modeled large-eddy simulation of turbulent smooth body separation using the OpenFOAM flow solver
• Extension of the law of the wall exploiting weak similarity of velocity fluctuations in turbulent channels

Related

• Large Eddy Simulations of Turbulent Pipe Flows At Moderate-To-High Reynolds Numbers
• A Method for Determination of the Reynolds Stress and Turbulence Structure in Wall-Bounded Flows
• Turbulence-Resolving Integral Simulations for Wall-Bounded Flows
• A generalisable data-augmented turbulence model with progressive and interpretable corrections for incompressible wall-bounded flows
• Performance of hybrid turbulence models in OpenFOAM for numerical simulations of a confined backward-facing step flow at low Prandtl number