Turbomachinery Research and Design: The Role of DNS and LES in Industry

The role of high-fidelity CFD in industry is rapidly evolving due to the growth of computational power. Direct and large eddy simulations of realistic turbomachinery flows are now possible to analyze not only fundamental problems, but also to investigate compressor and turbine design spaces. Nevertheless, it is practically impossible to replace conventional Reynolds averaged models with scale resolving simulations in the framework of industrial design iterations. Along these lines, this paper describes how scale resolving simulations can have a direct impact on both the design and the design tools of turbomachinery components. The presented results prove how high-fidelity simulations can explain unsteady loss generation, and how advanced post-processing indicates performance top offenders. When coupled with machine-learning, scale-resolved simulations are also capable of improving the accuracy Reynolds averaged models routinely used in design work.