LES over RANS for sports, building and city aerodynamics: a foregone conclusion

Large Eddy Simulation (LES) undeniably has the potential to provide more accurate and more reliable results than simulations based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approach. However, LES entails a higher simulation complexity and a much higher computational cost. In spite of some claims made in the past decades that LES would render RANS obsolete, RANS remains widely used in both research and engineering practice. This presentation attempts to answer the questions why this is the case and whether this is justified, not from the viewpoint of the fundamentals, but from the viewpoint of practical applications in sports, building and city aerodynamics. These applications are focused on the following topics: cycling aerodynamics, near-field pollutant dispersion, urban thermal environment and climate adaptation measures.