Direct numerical simulations of turbulent shear flows

Abstract

This contribution is concerned with the simulation of turbulent shear flows. First, direct numerical simulations (DNS) are introduced, focusing on the challenges associated with computing turbulent flows without any empirical modelling. The numerical method of one of our DNS codes is presented in detail and its performance on different HPC systems is discussed, in particular issues arising with multi-core architectures. An overview of DNS-based research conducted in the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Research group at the University of Southampton is then given, in an attempt to highlight how large-scale DNS performed on HPC resources can be used as a 'virtual wind tunnel', i.e. to conduc..