2014 Doctoral Student Summer Institute Supplemental Application

Pieces
Francois Cadieux
April 28, 2014

Benefits of participating

I will benefit from participating in the doctoral student summer institute in a number of ways:
financial support, greater structure, mentorship, and opportunities to expand my network across
disciplines with a wide range of scholars. Financial support is key, because it would allow me to
focus entirely on completing a part of my thesis project. Summer funding being limited, I would
otherwise have to find another source of income and divide my time. The greater structure of
the program, such as the written expectations outlined in this proposal will help me ensure that
100% of the time I gain from having financial support is used towards obtaining and analyzing
results that I can then publish. The opportunity to be mentored by another faculty is both rare
and coveted. My personal and research interests cross many disciplines. Being able to explore
these interests with a faculty member from another discipline, with a different outlook, could lead
to many unexpected realizations, avenues for future work, and the potential for interdisciplinary
collaboration (beyond this particular faculty). I hope to learn from faculty members and advisors
ways to improve the exposure and reach of my research. Their experience in the job market will
also be valuable for me to hear about. I hope to improve the quality and clarity of my writing
by applying what I have learned from academic and professional development writing workshops
I attended these past two semesters. I plan to take full advantage of the availability of further
writing workshops during the program to iterate on a first draft for a publication based on the
results I will obtain this summer. The diverse and interdisciplinary group of students and faculty
participating will enable me to broaden my horizons and extend my professional network. Each
time I explain concepts related to my research in conversations with scholars outside my field I
gain in both perspective and insight - from finding new ways to relate and from listening to their
thought process. This process helps to hone my communication skills. Conversely, learning about
other scholars research often opens my mind to possibilities I had not explored. By breaking down
these barriers and exploring new perspectives, I am convinced this opportunity will help me grow
personally and professionally.

April 28, 2014

2
2.1

2014 Doctoral Student Summer Institute Application

Francois Cadieux

Proposed Summer Project Description

Context & Motivation

Flow separation, transition to turbulence, and turbulent reattachment coined laminar separation
bubble (LSB) because of the recirculating region the phenomena create together directly affect the
performance of a number of increasingly important applications in the aerospace, defense and energy
industries. Flow separation without reattachment can have disastrous consequences such as loss of
lift on the performance of these applications (e.g. unmanned and micro-aerial vehicles) and ways
to delay it are sought at the design stage. LSB often favorably delay loss of lift by promoting early
transition to turbulence and reattachment. Faster, more accurate computational fluid dynamics
tools are necessary to enable the design optimization of technologies to better understand and
control this phenomenon.
Standard turbulence modeling methods used for the aviation industry (Reynolds Averaged NavierStokes) were shown to be inadequate for such LSB flows [2]. Direct numerical simulation (DNS)
is the most reliable but also the most computationally expensive alternative. In previous work
([1]), we assessed the capability of large eddy simulations (LES) to drastically reduce the resolution
requirements for such flows. Flow over a flat plate with suitable velocity boundary conditions away
from the plate to produce a separation bubble was considered. Benchmark DNS data for this
configuration were generated with the resolution of 59 10 6 mesh points; also used is a different
DNS database with 15 10 6 points [2]. LES results are in good agreement with DNS and indicate
that accurate LES is possible using O(1%) of the DNS resolution. However, contamination of
the results by numerical dissipation preclude any strong conclusions. Numerical dissipation is the
process by which energy is not entirely conserved in a simulation due to any approximation errors
inherent to the scheme used to integrate the partial differential equations governing the flow in
space and time. A preliminary attempt at quantifying the numerical dissipation in the simulation
indicated that it was on the same order of magnitude as the physical dissipation predicted by
the subgrid scale (SGS) model. Since numerical dissipation is present in all numerical simulations
of fluid flow, and is expected to be larger at coarse resolutions, a method to better quantify it
was developed by Domaradzki et al. Applying this method to quantify numerical dissipation in
different parts of the flow (laminar, transitional, and turbulent regions) should yield insight into
the reliability of very coarse LES as well as implicit LES and under-resolved DNS.

2.2

Objectives

The primary objective will be to quantify numerical dissipation by comparing theoretical expected
physical energy dissipation based on the independent variables (velocities, pressure, energy), to
the dissipation calculated when running the simulation. This comparison will be carried out by
analyzing a number of instants in time, as well as different regions in the flow. It is expected
that different values of numerical dissipation will be obtained for different regions of the flow. For
example, dissipation should be larger in turbulent areas, where we also expect numerical dissipation
to be larger due to sharp gradients being approximated on a coarse mesh.

April 28, 2014

2.3

2014 Doctoral Student Summer Institute Application

Francois Cadieux

Method

A number of snapshots in time of the flow field will be generated. These snapshots will be used
as input to calculate the expected theoretical energy dissipation rate. This will be obtained by
computing an energy balance with spectral accuracy using Fourier transforms in different control
volumes of the flow field. The energy rate of change is directly obtained from the simulation
variables as the change in time of the energy. The difference between the rate of change of energy
obtained from the simulation and that obtained from theory should be the dissipation due to
numerical error for a given control volume. This method of quantifying energy losses due to
numerics has been validated previously by Domaradzki et al.

2.4

Expected outcome

The hypothesis is that dissipation due to numerics is detrimental to the reliability of very coarse
LES results because it is not consistent with the physics, but rather depends on the precise grid and
numerical scheme used. Furthermore, numerical errors are not limited to regions where physical
dissipation is expected to be present. In other words, modeling physical dissipation to heat as
numerical losses from derivative approximations may introduce significant dissipation in areas where
there should be little to none. These effects should be limited to under-resolved simulations.
Unfortunately, such simulations are routinely performed in industrial and commercial settings to
save on computational cost, without any indication on the reliability of the results. The hope is that
this technique will help determine whether using a SGS model should improve or worsen accuracy
of the results.

Proposed Summer Project Timeline

References
[1] F. Cadieux, J. A. Domaradzki, T. Sayadi, and T. Bose. DNS and LES of laminar separation
bubbles at moderate Reynolds numbers. J. Fluids Eng., 136, 2014.
[2] P.R. Spalart and M.K. Strelets. Mechanisms of transition and heat transfer in a separation
bubble. J. Fluid Mech., 403:329349, 2000.