58 Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 6, Nos. 1/2/3, 2006 Copyright © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Assessment of the vortex method for Large Eddy Simulation inlet conditions Fabrice Mathey* Fluent France, 1 place Charles de Gaulle, 78180 Montigny Le Bretonneux, France E-mail: fabrice.mathey@fluent.fr *Corresponding author Davor Cokljat Fluent Europe Ltd., Sheffield Airport Business Park, Europa Link, Sheffield S9 1XU, UK E-mail: davor.cokljat@fluent.co.uk Jean Pierre Bertoglio and Emmanuel Sergent Ecole Centrale de Lyon LMFA, UMR 5509 CNRS, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Av. G. de Collongue, 69130 Ecully, France E-mail: jean-pierre.bertoglio@ec-lyon.fr E-mail: Emmanuel.sergent@ec-lyon.fr Abstract: The Vortex Method (VM) based boundary condition of Sergent (2002) was implemented in the general purpose CFD solver Fluent. It is shown that the VM offers a relatively inexpensive and accurate way to generate random fluctuations representing a turbulent flow field at the inlet. Since the generated velocity field is temporally and spatially correlated, it is a much more realistic representation of turbulence than the one obtained with a simple velocity distribution, using a random generator. Validations are reported for fully developed turbulent channel flow, pipe flow and separated hill flow. Keywords: turbulence; LES; inlet boundary conditions; vortex method. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mathey, F., Cokljat, D., Bertoglio, J.P. and Sergent, E. (2006) ‘Assessment of the vortex method for Large Eddy Simulation inlet conditions’, Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 6, Nos. 1/2/3, pp.58–67. Biographical notes: Fabrice Mathey has been a Research Assistant, EPFL, Lausanne in 1993–1994. He received his PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics from Grenoble in 1997 and his post Doctorate from Karlsruhe University in 1998–2000. From 2000–2001, he worked as a Numerical & Computational Engineer at CEA HPC Center. Since 2001, he has been working as a Turbulence Modelling Specialist, Fluent France. He is the author of more than 20 communications at international conferences and journal papers in the field of turbulence modelling . D. Cokljat received his PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics, London in 1993 and his post Doctorate at City University, London in 1993–1994. From 1994–1996, he worked as a Higher Scientific Officer at Central Government Laboratory, Daresbury UK. Since 1996, he has been working as a Senior Principal Developer, Fluent Europe, UK. He was also a Visiting Lecturer, UMIST Manchester, UK since 2001–2002. Jean Pierre Bertoglio received his PhD in Fluid Mechanics, Lyon in 1980. From 1980–1993, he has been a permanent Researcher at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). He has been working as a Scientific Research Director at CNRS since 1993. He is the Head of the ‘Turbulence statistical and multi-scale characterization’ research team at Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique of Ecole Centrale de Lyon. He is the author of more than 100 communications at international conference, 27 invited conferences, 45 papers in journals or contributions to edited books.