DOI: 10.1615/TSFP3
TWO- VERSUS THREE-DIMENSIONAL LES OF PREMIXED TURBULENT PROPAGATING FLAMES
RÉSUMÉ
One of the major controversies about the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) in turbulent flows concerns the validity of two dimensional (2D) calculations as opposed to the more time consuming but more relevant three-dimensional (3D) runs. It is conceivable that, for a certain class of problems, two-dimensional LES is adequate and this may well be the case for axisymmetric flows which may even involve recirculation. However, generalisation here is extremely dangerous since practical flow configurations lack symmetry and include complex boundary conditions. Understanding the issues that necessitate the use of 2D versus 3D LES is seen to be important given the huge savings that would be achieved if 2D LES is deemed to be adequate. The objective of this paper is to make comparisons between 2D and 3D LES in a fairly complex flow geometry with a view towards understanding the differences between such computations.