Transition Modelling With the SST Turbulence Model and an Intermittency Transport Equation

In gas turbine engines, laminar-turbulent transition occurs. However, generally, the turbulence models to describe such transition results in too early and too short transition. Combining a turbulence model with a description of intermittency, i.e. the fraction of time the flow is turbulent during the transition phase, can improve it. By letting grow the intermittency from zero to unity, start and evolution of transition can be imposed. In this paper, a method where a dynamic equation of intermittency combining with a two-equation k-ω turbulence model is described. This intermittency factor is a premultiplicator of the turbulent viscosity computed by the turbulence model. Following a suggestion by Menter et al.[1], the start of transition is computed based on local variables.