Numerical simulation of realistic aeronautical configurations using a coupled lattice-Boltzmann - Immersed Boundary solver
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The numerical simulation of turbulent aerodynamic flows at high Reynolds numbers remains a major challenge, particularly in the presence of thin boundary layers and complex geometries. At Reynolds numbers of the order of 10⁶, the explicit resolution of near-wall structures becomes computationally prohibitive, requiring the use of appropriate wall-modeling strategies. This work presents a numerical framework based on the coupling of the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with an Immersed Boundary Method (IBM), incorporating a turbulent wall law, for the simulation of high-Reynolds-number incompressible aerodynamic flows. The mesoscopic formulation of LBM offers excellent computational efficiency and scalability on massively parallel architectures, while the IBM enables the treatment of complex aerodynamic geometries without the need for body-fitted meshes. To account for near-wall effects without resolving the viscous sub-layer, a turbulent wall law is introduced within the LBM–IBM coupling to estimate wall shear stresses from local velocity fields. The proposed approach is compatible with LES turbulence modeling within the LBM framework. The methodology is validated on a three- elements airfoil « 30P30N », which is a reference aerodynamic benchmark at a Reynolds number of Re = 1.71 × 10⁶, characterized by a strongly separated flow and a highly turbulent wake. Numerical results show good agreement with available experimental and numerical reference data in terms of mean flow fields, global aerodynamic coefficients, and key flow features. These results demonstrate the potential of the LBM–IBM coupling with turbulent wall modeling as a robust and efficient method for the simulation of complex high-Reynolds-number aerodynamic flows.
