Abstract
Accurate large-eddy simulations of turbulent inflows require an inlet that supplies, at every timestep, a fluctuating velocity field with prescribed statistics, a task that remains notoriously difficult. We present turbulentSyntheticEddyInlet, a divergence-free synthetic-eddy velocity inlet for OpenFOAM. We re-derive the synthetic-eddy parameters and show that, for eddies of the Biot-Savart form, they are the unique choice for reproducing a prescribed Reynolds-stress tensor, correcting dimensional and ordering errors in earlier divergence-free implementations. The boundary condition is self-correcting. It measures the realised statistics and pre-distorts the target so that the prescribed turbulence is recovered a short distance into the domain, compensating for the initial decay of synthetic inflow. Walls, geometry, and turbulence profiles for developed flow are detected automatically and mapped onto arbitrary inlet shapes, reducing the configuration to a single velocity or mass-flow target while allowing advanced users full control. The boundary condition has been tested against DNS data and used in two experimentally validated combustion studies.