High-order wall-resolved large eddy simulation of transonic buffet on the OAT15A airfoil

The simulation of the transonic buffet phenomenon caused by shock wave and boundary layer interactions is a challenging problem for standard tools in computational fluid dynamics. We present a numerical study of the OAT15A airfoil at Mach number 0.73, angle of attack 3.5◦ and Reynolds number 3 × 10. In this work, we make use of a wall-resolved implicit large eddy simulation (WRLES) technique using a high-order discontinuous Galerkin discretization. Without making use of subgrid turbulence models or wall models, the WRLES simulation successfully predicts transonic buffet at an angle of attack of 3.5◦. This method results in good agreement with computational results obtained using detached eddy simulation (DES) method, and fair agreement with experimental results. We study the effect of mesh refinement, polynomial degree, and artificial viscosity parameters on the accuracy of the distribution of the pressure coefficient on the upper surface of the airfoil, and compare both 2D and 3D simulations.