APPLICATION OF SYNTHETIC ISOTROPIC TURBULENT INFLOW CONDITIONS IN THE SIMULATION OF A BACKWARD-FACING STEP

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulent flows requires the specification of realistic inflow boundary conditions, particularly when limited upstream length is available for turbulence development. In the present work, synthetic turbulent inflow conditions are prescribed using the Random Flow Generation (RFG) method to simulate the incompressible flow over a backward-facing step at Reynolds number 5000. For simplicity, an isotropic turbulence condition is imposed at the inlet. The numerical results show satisfactory agreement with experimental data for mean velocity and turbulence statistics, indicating that the adopted approach provides an effective and robust strategy for LES simulations of separated flows with restricted inlet length.