Francesco De Vanna

This Reprint gathers nine peer-reviewed studies that examine computational fluid dynamics as a working instrument of engineering practice rather than as an abstract numerical exercise. Continuing two earlier collections, it follows industrial CFD from the fidelity of turbulence closures to the deployment of simulations within operating plants. The contributions assess hybrid RANS and LES strategies for separation on curved surfaces, benchmark an in-house marine solver across a wide range of Reynolds numbers, and place the two-fluid model of two-phase flow on firmer mathematical ground. Further studies trace the vortex dynamics that govern confined turbulent wakes, the lateral deviation of engine brake valves, and the pressure losses of molten salt heat exchanger manifolds. A final group converts high-fidelity computation into engineering value through span-adaptive passive flow control on wind turbine blades, transient platoon aerodynamics of heavy-duty trucks under crosswind, and a digital twin for the real-time operation of a sugar dryer. Spanning wind and nuclear energy, thermal systems, internal combustion engines, road and marine transport, and process industries, the collected works share a common disposition: to validate honestly, to verify rigorously, and to report where simulation succeeds as well as where it still falls short.

This third edition of the Special Issue “Industrial CFD and Fluid Modeling in Engineering” continues a line of inquiry begun in two earlier collections, in which computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is examined not as an abstract numerical exercise but as a working instrument of engineering practice

Modern gas turbines for aeroengines operate at ever-increasing inlet temperatures to maximize thermal efficiency, power, output and thrust, subjecting turbine blades to severe thermal and mechanical stresses. To ensure component durability, effective cooling strategies are indispensable, yet they strongly influence the underlying aerothermal behavior, particularly in transonic regimes where shock–boundary layer interactions are critical. In this work, a comprehensive Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) investigation is carried out on the LS89 transonic turbine cascade, considering both adiabatic and cooled wall conditions. Three operating cases, spanning progressively higher outlet Mach numbers (0.84, 0.875, and 1.020), are analyzed using multiple turbulence closures. To mitigate the well-known model dependence of RANS predictions, a model-averaging strategy is introduced, providing a more robust prediction framework and reducing the uncertainty associated with single-model results. A systematic mesh convergence study is also performed to ensure grid-independent solutions. The results show that while wall pressure and isentropic Mach number remain largely unaffected by wall cooling, viscous near-wall quantities and wake characteristics exhibit a pronounced sensitivity to the wall-to-recovery temperature ratio. To support further research and model benchmarking, the complete RANS database generated in this work is released as an open-source resource and made publicly.

Wall-resolved large-eddy simulations are conducted to examine a Mach 1.1 normal shock–turbulent boundary layer interaction (SBLI) under systematically varied wall-to-recovery temperature ratios. A second-law thermodynamic analysis is employed to characterize the underlying mechanisms of entropy generation. Three distinct regimes are identified: a cooling-dominated regime, in which wall cooling substantially reduces total entropy production; a friction-dominated regime, where viscous dissipation is the primary source of irreversibility; and an intermediate entropy-balanced regime, where contributions from both shock-induced and wall-related mechanisms become comparable. Entropy generation due to viscous effects and heat conduction is quantified using newly defined, non-dimensional entropy dissipation coefficients. These coefficients exhibit robust self-similar scaling with the boundary-layer momentum-thickness Reynolds number, providing a generalized framework for assessing thermodynamic losses in wall flows and SBLI arrangements. Thus, the results offer a comprehensive entropy-based characterization of SBLI under variable thermal boundary conditions, yielding new insight into the coupled effects of aerodynamic heating, wall cooling, and shock dynamics in transonic flows. The proposed framework contributes to the development of physically grounded loss metrics, with implications for the design and optimization of high-speed propulsion and turbomachinery systems.

Following the success of the first edition of “Industrial CFD and Fluid Modeling in Engineering”, this second edition continues to showcase cutting-edge research that pushes the boundaries of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in addressing complex industrial flow problems