Robust and efficient discontinuous Galerkin methods for under-resolved turbulent incompressible flows

Abstract We present a robust and accurate discretization approach for incompressible turbulent flows based on high-order discontinuous Galerkin methods. The DG discretization of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations uses the local Lax–Friedrichs flux for the convective term, the symmetric interior penalty method for the viscous term, and central fluxes for the velocity–pressure coupling terms. Stability of the discretization approach for under-resolved, turbulent flow problems is realized by a purely numerical stabilization approach. Consistent penalty terms that enforce the incompressibility constraint as well as inter-element continuity of the velocity field in a weak sense render the numerical method a robust discretization scheme in the under-resolved regime. The penalty parameters are derived by means of dimensional analysis using penalty factors of order 1. Applying these penalty terms in a postprocessing step leads to an efficient solution algorithm for turbulent flows. The proposed approach is applicable independently of the solution strategy used to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, i.e., it can be used for both projection-type solution methods as well as monolithic solution approaches. Since our approach is based on consistent penalty terms, it is by definition generic and provides optimal rates of convergence when applied to laminar flow problems. Robustness and accuracy are verified for the Orr–Sommerfeld stability problem, the Taylor–Green vortex problem, and turbulent channel flow. Moreover, the accuracy of high-order discretizations as compared to low-order discretizations is investigated for these flow problems. A comparison to state-of-the-art computational approaches for large-eddy simulation indicates that the proposed methods are highly attractive components for turbulent flow solvers.