Abstract
Abstract
In this communication, we evaluate the capacity of Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) to predict the turbulent velocity field measured in the model engine flow of Borée et al. (2002). This experimental flow is characterized by a high tumble rate. Statistical quantities like mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy are computed from averaging on a set of independent cycles and compared to experiment. An interesting conclusion is that LES correctly predict the local maximum of turbulent kinetic energy observed around the center of the tumble due to large-scale precession. It is also shown that to this property is not satisfied by conventional RANS approaches based on single-point turbulence models.