Comparison of URANS and Hybrid RANS/LES buffet response of the Benchmark Supercritical Wing

To ascertain the state-of-the-art in computational modelling tools and guide future progress in transonic flutter prediction, the High Angle Working Group of the Third Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop (AePW) is investigating NASA's Benchmark Supercritical Wing (BSCW) at a high-angle, transonic flight condition. Prior iterations of the AePW noted substantial disparity in flutter predictions at these challenging test conditions and it is hypothesised that the source of these discrepancies lies in the insufficient resolution of self-sustained shock oscillations in the flutter computations. As such, the purpose of this study is to present further progress towards establishing guidelines for accurately reproducing this transonic buffet phenomenon in aeroelastic simulations. A buffeting response is captured on a rigid BSCW test case using an advanced URANS formulation termed Scale Adaptive Simulation, which permits the resolution of turbulent scales with comparatively less taxing compute requirements relative to traditional hybrid RANS-LES methods. These results are compared to those derived from a Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation. Reasonable correlation is demonstrated with available experimental data regarding surface pressure statistics and spectral content, although distinct flow topologies are observed between the two modelling approaches.