CFD Modelling of Cabin Air Ventilation in the International Space Station: A Comparison of RANS and LES Data with Test Measurements for the Columbus Module

Ventilation characteristics of the Columbus module are numerically predicted on the basis of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approaches. The steady-state RANS computations were performed using the high-Reynolds-number k-e turbulence model, and the Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid-scale model was used for LES. The computed results were compared with experimental data available for spatial distributions of the time-averaged absolute velocity magnitude. On the basis of LES data, distinctions in the fields of this quantity and the whole mean velocity were analysed. A procedure for evaluation of the time-averaged absolute velocity spatial distributions using RANS data on the mean velocity and the turbulent kinetic energy is suggested and examined.