Physics-based distinction of nonequilibrium effects in near-wall modeling of turbulent separation bubble with and without sweep

Pressure-gradient-induced separation of swept and unswept turbulent boundary layers, based on the DNS studies of Coleman et al. (J. Fluid Mech. 2018 2019), have been analyzed for various nonequilibrium effects. The goal is to isolate physical processes critical to near-wall flow modeling. The decomposition of skin friction into contributing physical terms, proposed by Renard and Deck (J. Fluid Mech. 2016) (short: RD decomposition), affords several key insights into the near-wall physics of these flows. In the unswept case, spatial growth term (encapsulating nonequilibrium effects) and TKE production appear to be the dominant contributing terms in the RD decomposition in the separated and pressure-gradient zones, but a closer inspection reveals that only the spatial growth term dominates in the inner layer close to the separation bubble, implying a strong need for incorporating nonequilibrium terms in the wall modeling of this case. The comparison of streamwise RD decomposition of swept and unswept cases shows that a larger accumulated Clauser-pressure-gradient parameter history in the latter energizes the outer dynamics in the APG, leading to diminished separation bubble size in the unswept case. The spanwise RD decomposition in the swept case indicates that the downstream spanwise flow largely retains the upstream ZPG characteristics. This seems to ease the near-wall modeling challenge in the separated region, especially for basic models with an inherent log-law assumption. Wall-modeled LES of the swept and unswept cases are then performed using three wall models, validating many of the modeling implications from the DNS. In particular, the extension of RD decomposition to wall models underpins the criticality of spatial growth term close to the separation bubble, and the corresponding superior predictions by the PDE wall model due to its accurate capturing of this term.