One major drawback of the eddy viscosity subgrid‐scale stress models used in large‐eddy simulations is their inability to represent correctly with a single universal constant different turbulent fields in rotating or sheared flows, near solid walls, or in transitional regimes. In the present work a new eddy viscosity model is presented which alleviates many of these drawbacks. The model coefficient is computed dynamically as the calculation progresses rather than input a priori. The model is based on an algebraic identity between the subgrid‐scale stresses at two different filtered levels and the resolved turbulent stresses. The subgrid‐scale stresses obtained using the proposed model vanish in laminar flow and at a solid boundary, and have the correct asymptotic behavior in the near‐wall region of a turbulent boundary layer. The results of large‐eddy simulations of transitional and turbulent channel flow that use the proposed model are in good agreement with the direct simulation data.

▪ Abstract Because the cost of large-eddy simulations (LES) of wall-bounded flows that resolve all the important eddies depends strongly on the Reynolds number, methods to bypass the wall layer are required to perform high-Reynolds-number LES at a reasonable cost. In this paper the available methodologies are reviewed, and their ranges of applicability are highlighted. Various unresolved issues in wall-layer modeling are presented, mostly in the context of engineering applications.

Most subgrid-scale (SGS) models for large-eddy simulations (LES) are absolutely dissipative (that is, they remove energy from the large scales at each point in the physical space). The actual SGS stresses, however, may transfer energy to the large scales (backscatter) at a given location. Recent work on the LES of transitional flows [Piomelli et al., Phys. Fluids A 2, 257 (1990)] has shown that failure to account for this phenomenon can cause inaccurate prediction of the growth of the perturbations. Direct numerical simulations of transitional and turbulent channel flow and compressible isotropic turbulence are used to study the backscatter phenomenon. In all flows considered roughly 50% of the grid points were experiencing backscatter when a Fourier cutoff filter was used. The backscatter fraction was less with a Gaussian filter, and intermediate with a box filter in physical space. Moreover, the backscatter and forward scatter contributions to the SGS dissipation were comparable, and each was often much larger than the total SGS dissipation. The SGS dissipation (normalized by total dissipation) increased with filter width almost independently of filter type. The amount of backscatter showed an increasing trend with Reynolds number. In the near-wall region of the channel, events characterized by strong Reynolds shear stress correlated fairly well with areas of high SGS dissipation (both forward and backward). In compressible isotropic turbulence similar results were obtained, independent of fluctuation Mach number.