A Review of the Computational Studies on the Separated Subsonic Flow in Asymmetric Diffusers Focused on Turbulence Modeling Assessment

Separated turbulent diffuser flows have long been an object of experimental and computational investigations due to their wide use in engineering applications and fundamental importance for understanding turbulent effects. The accuracy of simulating such flows depends mainly on turbulence modeling subtleties, numerical method, and the correspondence between the boundary conditions and the experimental set-up. The current review of selected articles focuses on revealing some of the computational challenges that may occur while modeling asymmetric subsonic diffuser flows. These challenges include the influence of sidewalls on the separation, issues with grid convergence, and the definition of boundary conditions. Several known experimental test cases and attempts at simulating them are studied. The novelty of this paper is in the fact that it is focused on a specific type of diffusers (asymmetric and subsonic) and based on relatively recent data. It is concluded that for all the test cases considered, Reynolds stress models and hybrid eddy-resolving methods are the most appropriate tools for obtaining reasonable results.