Modelling natural convection : A challenge for the Full Digital 2025 Ambition – MONACO_2025

Transient, buoyancy-affected turbulent flows play a major role in many industrial and environmental applications, in particular for the sectors of the two industrial partners, automotive and nuclear industries. Therefore, the present project focuses on configurations representative of a wide range of systems, in order to develop innovative models that will make possible the use of CFD for such very challenging configurations in the daily practice of engineers, which is not possible nowadays. The objective of the project is thus to incorporate buoyancy effects in a range of turbulence models, in order to provide engineers with efficient, robust and accurate tools for the prediction of flows in the mixed or natural convection regimes. The prediction of transient phenomena due to the influence of buoyancy constitutes the main barrier that must be overcome during the project, such that a particular effort will be devoted to the development of hybrid RANS/LES methods, with the objective of demonstrating their potential for buoyancy dominated flows.