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Assessment of zero-equation SGS models for simulating indoor environment

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Abstract

The understanding of air-flow in enclosed spaces plays a key role to designing ventilation systems and indoor environment. The computational fluid dynamics aspects dictate that the large eddy simulation (LES) offers a subtle means to analyze complex flows with recirculation and streamline curvature effects, providing more robust and accurate details than those of Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes simulations. This work assesses the performance of two zero-equation sub-grid scale models: the Rahman–Agarwal–Siikonen–Taghinia (RAST) model with a single grid-filter and the dynamic Smagorinsky model with grid-filter and test-filter scales. This in turn allows a cross-comparison of the effect of two different LES methods in simulating indoor air-flows with forced and mixed (natural + forced) convection. A better performance against experiments is indicated with the RAST model in wall-bounded non-equilibrium indoor air-flows; this is due to its sensitivity toward both the shear and vorticity parameters.

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Abbreviations

\(C_\mu\) :

Eddy-viscosity coefficient

\(\bar{C}_s\) :

Smagorinsky coefficient

G :

Filter function

g :

Gravitational acceleration

k :

Total turbulent kinetic energy

\(L_{ij}\) :

Leonard stress

Pr :

Molecular Prandtl number

\(Pr_{sgs}\) :

Sub-grid scale Prandtl number

Re :

Reynolds number

\(\bar{S}_{ij}\) :

Resolved strain-rate tensor

T :

Temperature

\(\bar{u}_i\) :

Grid-filter velocities

\(\tilde{\bar{u}}_i\) :

Test-filter velocities

\(\bar{u}_\tau\) :

Friction velocity

\(\overline{W}_{ij}\) :

Resolved vorticity tensor

\(y^+\) :

Dimensionless wall distance \((\bar{u}_\tau y/\nu )\)

\(\beta\) :

Thermal expansion coefficient

\(\delta _{i,j}\) :

Kronecker’s delta

\(\varDelta t\) :

Time step

\(\bar{\varDelta }\) :

Grid-filter width

\(\tilde{\varDelta }\) :

Test-filter width

\(\nu ,\nu _T\) :

Laminar and turbulent viscosities

\(\bar{\theta }_i\) :

Grid-filter temperature

\(\tilde{\bar{\theta }}_i\) :

Test-filter temperature

\(\rho\) :

Density

\(\tau _{i,j}\) :

Sub-grid scale stress tensor

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

DSM:

Dynamic Smagorinsky model

LES:

Large eddy simulation

RANS:

Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes

RAST:

Rahman–Agarwal–Siikonen–Taghinia

SGS:

Sub-grid scale

i, j :

Variable numbers

in :

Inlet condition

out :

Outlet condition

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Javad Taghinia & Md Mizanur Rahman

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Javad Taghinia & Tim K.T. Tse

Authors
  1. Javad Taghinia
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  2. Md Mizanur Rahman
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  3. Tim K.T. Tse
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Correspondence to Javad Taghinia.

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Taghinia, J., Rahman, M.M. & Tse, T.K. Assessment of zero-equation SGS models for simulating indoor environment. Heat Mass Transfer 52, 2781–2794 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-016-1776-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-016-1776-7

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