Comparison of improved finite-difference WENO schemes for the implicit large eddy simulation of turbulent non-reacting and reacting high-speed shear flows

•WENO-JS, -M, -Z, and -MZ are evaluated for implicit large eddy simulation.•Non-reacting and reacting high-speed air/H2H2 jets are simulated.•Numerical experiments do not show any obvious advantages of improved WENO schemes.

Improved WENO schemes, Z, M, and their combination MZ, originally designed to capture sharper discontinuities than the classical fifth order Jiang–Shu scheme does, are evaluated for the purpose of implicit large eddy simulation of free shear flows. 1D Fourier analysis of errors reveals the built-in filter and dissipative properties of the schemes, which are subsequently applied to the canonical Rayleigh–Taylor and Taylor–Green flows. Large eddy simulations of a transonic non-reacting and a supersonic reacting air/H2H2 jets are then performed at resolution 128 × 128 × 512, showing no significant difference in the flow statistics. However, the computational time varies from one scheme to the other, the Z scheme providing the smaller wall-time due to larger allowed time steps.