A return to eddy viscosity model for epistemic UQ in RANS closures

Abstract: For the purpose of Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) of Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes closures, we introduce a framework in which perturbations in the eigenvalues of the anisotropy tensor are made in order to bound a Quantity-of-Interest based on limiting states of turbulence. To make the perturbations representative of local flow features, we introduce two additional transport equations for linear combinations of these aforementioned eigenvalues. The location, magnitude and direction of the eigenvalue perturbations are now governed by the model transport equations. The general behavior of our discrepancy model is determined by two coefficients, resulting in a low-dimensional UQ problem. We will furthermore show that the behavior of the model is intuitive and rooted in the physical interpretation of misalignment between the mean strain and Reynolds stresses.