DNS and Experiments

DNS results have consistently shown excellent comparisons with experimental data. One of the comparisons of the results obtained by DNS of turbulent flow over a backward-facing step (Le et al. [7]) with the experimental data obtained by by Jovic & Driver [5] is shown in figure 1.

  

Figure: Comparison of mean streamwise velocity profiles generated by DNS of turbulent flow over a backward-facing step (Le et al. [7]) with experimental data obtained by Jovic & Driver [5]

In 1987, Moin & Spalart [9] used DNS data from a turbulent boundary layer to estimate the accuracy of cross-wire probes and to quantify the magnitudes of the different sources of error. DNS has recently been used to provide probe design criteria and validate experimental measurements of vorticity in turbulent flows. Kim et al. [6] performed DNS of the turbulent channel flow (Re_c=3300) using about 4 million grid points to resolve the flow. Extensive comparison of the results to experimental data was performed and in general, good agreement was found.