Perspectives for large eddy simulation of bluff-body turbulent flows and environmental flows

The present contribution discusses the application of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to the study of turbulent flow and turbulent transport past bluff bodies, whose phenomenology can be considered a fundamental building block for different classes of environmental flow. Emphasis is given to modeling issues and to those numerical tools which are necessary to produce reliable and accurate simulations. Applications of different subgrid closures and numerical algorithms are discussed. Concerning this last aspect of simulation, the present contribution is focused on the application of the domain decomposition technique, which represents a promising numerical tool for satisfactory and cost-effective simulations of turbulent incompressible flows in complex geometries. The different sub-domains resulting from decomposition of the computational field are interfaced applying the Schur Complement Method. The potential of the present approach is demonstrated on the basis of simulation of turbulent flows, at low to medium Reynolds numbers, for fairly complex geometry, involving large scale unsteadiness and separation. The perspectives and feasibility for the extension of the available technology to high Reynolds number flows are discussed, taking into account the most recent advances in the field of modeling and numerical techniques.