3D Unsteady Computations for Submarine-Like Bodies

Paper in proceeding, 2005

Results from a computational study using Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) models and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of flows past submarine-like bodies are here presented. The aims are to evaluate URANS and LES for high-Re number hydrodynamic flows, to investigate the influence of the turbulence and subgrid turbulence modeling, and to discuss some features of submarine hydrodynamics. For this purpose we have chosen to examine the flow past a prolate spheroid at 10° and 20° angle of attack at a body length Re number of 4-106, and the flow past the DARPA-2 Suboff bare hull and fully appended hull configurations at a body length Re number of 12-106. For both cases experimental data is available for comparison. One finite element and one finite volume flow solver has been used - both with the capability of employing a range of turbulence models and with the capacity of using unstructured and hybrid grids. Better agreement between predictions and experimental data is obtained with LES than with the URANS models, but at a considerably higher price, due to the finer grids and finer temporal resolution in LES.