A Historical Review of Turbulence Flow Modeling and Simulation in Hydraulics

This paper reviews from a historical perspective the various methods for treating and simulating turbulence. After highlighting the main characteristic features of turbulence and its role in hydraulics, a necessary brief overview is given of the main methods used in hydraulic flow calculations for dealing with turbulence and its effects. These are 1) empirical relations, 2) solution methods for the Reynolds- Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), 3) Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), and 4) Large-Eddy Simulations (LES). Brief comments are made on the historical development of different methods. Moreover, some application examples are presented for RANS, DNS, and LES methods.