Evaluation on turbulence models in simulating complex flows around high-lift airfoil

The flows around the three-element high-lift airfoil under the approaching conditions using seven eddy-viscosity turbulence models commonly applied to engineering in Fluent software were simulated numerically. Through a systematic comparison of the simulation results with the experiment results and the corresponding delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) results, including the pressure coefficient, Mach number, vorticity and turbulent kinetic energy of airfoil, conclusions were drawn about their predicting abilities for this airfoil. Results show that, the standard k-ω model has the best predicting abilities for the averaged flow field, providing a better simulation for the pressure coefficient around the airfoil, the separating point and separating zone magnitude on the flap; the shear stress transport (SST) k -ω model also has the same abilities. The one-equation SA(Spalart-Allmaras) model and four-equations v²-f model shares similar abilities; but the simulation results given by the k-ε series models seem worse compared to all. As for the predicting abilities for the turbulent kinetic energy, conclusions similar to the averaged flow field are drawn. However, the “largest” turbulent kinetic energy distribution around the separating zone on the flap isn't captured by all the turbulence models.