IV.5 Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of the k - model :
- Simplest turbulence model for which only boundry and initial conditions need to
be specified.
- Excellent performance for many industrially relevant flows
- Well established and validated.
However the model does exhibit poor performance for certain types of flow :
- flows with extra large strain - curved boundary layers, swirl flow
- rotating flows (eg. high speed turbomachinery)
- fully developed flows in non-circular ducts (fails to predict secondary flow)
If any of these become an issue, refinements and more sophisticated models are available.