High-order implicit residual smoothing time scheme for direct and large eddy simulations of compressible flows

Abstract Restrictions on the maximum allowable time step of explicit time integration methods for direct and large eddy simulations of compressible turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers can be very severe, because of the extremely small space steps used close to solid walls to capture tiny and elongated boundary layer structures. A way of increasing stability limits is to use implicit time integration schemes. However, the price to pay is a higher computational cost per time step, higher discretization errors and lower parallel scalability. In quest for an implicit time scheme for scale-resolving simulations providing the best possible compromise between these opposite requirements, we develop a Runge–Kutta implicit residual smoothing (IRS) scheme of fourth-order accuracy, based on a bilaplacian operator. The implicit operator involves the inversion of scalar pentadiagonal systems, for which efficient parallel algorithms are available. The proposed method is assessed against two explicit and two implicit time integration techniques in terms of computational cost required to achieve a threshold level of accuracy. Precisely, the proposed time scheme is compared to four-stages and six-stages low-storage Runge–Kutta method, to the second-order IRS and to a second-order backward scheme solved by means of matrix-free quasi-exact Newton subiterations. Numerical results show that the proposed IRS scheme leads to reductions in computational time by a factor 3 to 5 for an accuracy comparable to that of the corresponding explicit Runge–Kutta scheme.