The paper presents a synthetic turbulence generator (STG) for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) at the interface of the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the LBM large eddy simulation (LES). We first obtain the RANS velocity field from a finite volume solver at the interface. Then, we apply a numerical interpolation from the RANS velocity field to the LBM velocity field due to the different grid types of RANS and LBM. The STG method generates the velocity fluctuations, and the regularized LBM reconstructs the particle distribution functions at the interface. We perform a turbulent channel flow simulation at ${\text{Re}}_{\tau }=180$ with the STG at the inlet and the pressure-free boundary condition at the outlet. The velocity field is quantitatively compared with the periodic lattice Boltzmann based LES (LES-LBM) channel flow and the direct numerical simulation (DNS) channel flow. Both the adaptation length and time for the STG method are evaluated. Also, we compare the STG-LBM channel flow results with the existing LBM synthetic eddy method (SEM-LBM) results. Our numerical investigations show good agreement with the DNS and periodic LES-LBM channel flow within a short adaptation length. The adaptation time for the turbulent channel flow is quantitatively analyzed and matches the DNS around 1.5–3 domain flow-through time. Finally, we check the auto-correlation for the velocity components at different cross sections of the streamwise direction. The proposed STG-LBM is observed to be both fast and robust. The findings show good potential for the hybrid RANS/LES-LBM based solver on the aerodynamics simulations and a broad spectrum of engineering applications.

Volutes for radial-flow turbomachines (e.g., centrifugal fans and pumps) are spiral funnel-shaped casings that house rotors. Their function is to guide the flow from rotors to outlets and maintain constant flow speeds. Under specific conditions, however, volutes are removed (termed voluteless) to reduce flow losses and noise. In this paper, a generic voluteless centrifugal fan is investigated for the tonal noise generation at an off-design operation point. In contrast to typical tonal noise sources induced by the fan blades, we find out that another predominant source is the turbulence stemming from the clearance gap between the fan front shroud and the inlet duct. The turbulence evolves along with the front shroud and is swept downstream to interact with the top side of the blade leading edge. An obvious additional tone is observed at $273\hspace{0.17em}\text{Hz}$ other than the blade passing frequency (${\mathit{BPF}}_0$ ) and relevant harmonic frequencies. By coarsening the mesh resolution near the inlet gap and front shroud in the simulations, we artificially deactivate the gap turbulence. Consequently, the tone at $273\hspace{0.17em}\text{Hz}$ disappears completely. The finding indicates that the interaction between the gap turbulence and blades accounts for the tone. As the gap turbulence exists near the front shroud, this rotating wall introduces rotational momentum into the turbulence due to skin friction. Hence, this tonal interaction frequency is smaller than ${\mathit{BPF}}_0$ with a decrement of the fan rotation frequency. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that voluteless centrifugal fans are studied for the gap-turbulence noise generation.