Refined turbulence modelling for power generation industry

CFD applications in the context of power plants illustrate the detailed three-dimensional studies in complex geometries that are possible today, with a special emphasis on the necessity of solving the time-dependent equations. These routine simulations give a much more detailed representation of many flow configurations than was possible with scale models in the design stage of the plants, thus increasing their safety and life span. Aside from these global simulations conducted with standard models, use of Second Moment Closures is shown to better represent the effects of body forces, such as buoyancy and rotation, encountered in sub components of the plant. Finally Large Eddy Simulation is introduced on unstructured meshes and the related needs concerning fluid/structure coupling and unsteady thermal loading in plant components are described.