Detached-Eddy Simulations Over a Simplified Landing Gear

The flow around a generic airliner landing-gear truck is calculated using the methods of Detached-Eddy Simulation, and of Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations, with the Spalart-Allmaras one-equation model. The two simulations have identical numerics, using a multi-block structured grid with about 2.5 million points. The Reynolds number is 6×105. Comparison to the experiment of Lazos shows that the simulations predict the pressure on the wheels accurately for such a massively separated flow with strong interference. DES performs somewhat better than URANS. Drag and lift are not predicted as well. The time-averaged and instantaneous flow fields are studied, particularly to determine their suitability for the physics-based prediction of noise. The two time-averaged flow fields are similar, though the DES shows more turbulence intensity overall. The instantaneous flow fields are very dissimilar. DES develops a much wider range of unsteady scales of motion and appears promising for noise prediction, up to some frequency limit.