Will RANS Survive LES? A View of Perspectives

Abstract

The paper provides a view of some developments and a perspective on the future role of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach in the computation of turbulent flows and heat transfer in competition with large-eddy simulations (LES). It is argued that RANS will further play an important role, especially in industrial and environmental computations, and that the further increase in the computing power will be used more to utilize advanced RANS models to shorten the design and marketing cycle rather than to yield the way to LES. We also discuss some current and future developments in RANS aimed at improving their performance and range of applicability, as well as their potential in hybrid approaches in combination with the LES strategy. Limitations in LES at high Reynolds (Re) and Rayleigh (Ra) number flows and heat transfer are revisited and some hybrid RANS/LES routes are discussed. The potential of very large eddy simulations (VLES) of flows dominated by (pseudo)-deterministic eddy structures, based on transient RANS (T-RANS) and similar approaches, is discussed and illustrated in an example of “ultra-hard” (very high Ra) thermal convection.