Joint-constraint model for large-eddy simulation of helical turbulence

A three-term mixed subgrid-scale (SGS) stress model is proposed for large-eddy simulation (LES) of helical turbulence. The new model includes a Smagorinsky-Lilly term, a velocity gradient term, and a symmetric vorticity gradient term. The model coefficients are determined by minimizing the mean square error between the realistic and modeled Leonard stresses under a joint constraint of kinetic energy and helicity fluxes. The model formulated as such is referred to as joint-constraint dynamic three-term model (JCD3TM). First, the new model is evaluated a priori using the direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of homogeneous isotropic turbulence with helical forcing. It is shown that the SGS dissipation fractions from all three terms in JCD3TM have the properties of length-scale invariance in inertial subrange. JCD3TM can predict the SGS stresses, energy flux, and helicity flux more accurately than the dynamic Smagorinsky model (DSM) and dynamic mixed helical model (DMHM) in both pointwise and statistical senses. Then, the performance of JCD3TM is tested a posteriori in LESs of both forced and freely decaying helical isotropic turbulence. It is found that JCD3TM possesses certain features of superiority over the other two models in predicting the energy spectrum, helicity spectrum, high-order statistics, etc. It is also noteworthy that JCD3TM is capable of simulating the evolutions of both energy and helicity spectra more precisely than other models in decaying helical turbulence. We claim that the present SGS model can capture the main helical features of turbulent motions and may serve as a useful tool for LES of helical turbulent flows.