An implicit large-eddy simulation perspective on the flow over periodic hills

Abstract: The periodic hills simulation case is a well-established benchmark for computational fluid dynamics solvers due to its complex features derived from the separation of a turbulent flow from a curved surface. We study the case with the open-source implicit large-eddy simulation (ILES) software Lethe. Lethe solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations by applying a stabilised continuous finite element discretisation. The results are validated by comparison to experimental and computational data available in the literature for Re = 5600. We study the effect of the time step, averaging time, and global mesh refinement. The ILES approach shows good accuracy for average velocities and Reynolds stresses using less degrees of freedom than the reference numerical solution. The time step has a greater effect on the accuracy when using coarser meshes, while for fine meshes the results are rapidly time-step independent when using an implicit time-stepping approach. A good prediction of the reattachment point is obtained with several meshes and this value approaches the experimental benchmark value as the mesh is refined. We also run simulations at Reynolds equal to 10600 and 37000 and observe promising results for the ILES approach.