Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow above and within a forest

A large-eddy simulation has been performed of an atmospheric surface layer in which the lower third of the domain is occupied by a drag layer and heat sources to represent a forest. Subgridscale processes are treated using second-order closure techniques. Lateral boundaries are periodic, while the upper boundary is a frictionless fixed lid. Mean vertical profiles of wind velocity derived from the output are realistic in their shape and response to forest density. Similarly, vertical profiles of Reynolds stress, turbulent kinetic energy and velocity skewness match observations, at least in a qualitative sense. The limited vertical extent of the domain and the artificial upper boundary, however, cause some departures from measured turbulence profiles in real forests. Instantaneous turbulent velocity and scalar fields are presented which show some of the features obtained by tower instrumentation in the field and in wind tunnels, such as the vertical coherence of vertical velocity and the slope of structures revealed by temperature patterns.     

Observation of organized structure in turbulent flow within and above a forest canopy

Ramp patterns of temperature and humidity occur coherently at several levels within and above a deciduous forest as shown by data gathered with up to seven triaxial sonic anemometer/thermometers and three Lyman-alpha hygrometers at an experimental site in Ontario, Canada. The ramps appear most clearly in the middle and upper portion of the forest. Time/height cross-sections of scalar contours and velocity vectors, developed from both single events and ensemble averages of several events, portray details of the flow structures associated with the scalar ramps. Near the top of the forest they are composed of a weak ejecting motion transporting warm and/or moist air out of the forest followed by strong sweeps of cool and/or dry air penetrating into the canopy. The sweep is separated from the ejecting air by a sharp scalar microfront. At approximately twice the height of the forest, ejections and sweeps are of about equal strength.In the middle and upper parts of the canopy, sweeps conduct a large proportion of the overall transfer between the forest and the lower atmosphere, with a lesser contribution from ejections. Ejections become equally important aloft. During one 30-min run, identified structures were responsible for more than 75% of the total fluxes of heat and momentum at mid-canopy height. Near the canopy top, the transition from ejection of slow moving fluid to sweep bringing fast moving air from above is very rapid but, at both higher and lower levels, brief periods of upward momentum transfer occur at or immediately before the microfront.     

Investigation of small-scale droplet concentration inhomogeneities in a turbulent flow

Summary This paper is focused on the numerical investigation of spatial characteristics of droplet concentration fluctuations, originating in a turbulent flow. The turbulent flow is simulated using a model of a statistically stationary, homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flow. We found that preferential droplet concentration with the maximum of spatial spectrum at about 1.5 cm is formed regardless of the droplet size (up to the droplet radius of 20 μm). The amplitude of fluctuations depends on the droplet radius and constitutes a significant part of mean concentration. Analogous simulations with non-inertial droplets (passive scalar) do not reveal such concentration fluctuations. Our main conclusion is, therefore, the following: preferential droplet concentration at the cm-scale forms in a turbulent flow due to droplets inertia.     

Retrieval of turbulent pressure fluctuations at the ground surface beneath a forest

The relationship between surface pressure fluctuations and the velocity field associated with turbulent coherent structures is examined for flow within and above a deciduous forest. Measurements were taken with tower-mounted sonic anemometer/thermometers at six heights, Lyman-alpha humidiometers at three heights, and a pressure sensor at the forest floor. We find a strong, near-linear relationship between the mean square turbulent velocity and the standard deviation of the high-pass-filtered pressure fluctuations. Lagged cross-correlations between vertical velocity fluctuations and those of pressure show maximum correlations of ± 0.5 but with a phase offset. Examination of surface pressure during the passage of coherent structures, which are characterized by a transition from ejection to sweep, reveals a period of overpressure about 20 s in duration roughly centered on the time of passage of the scalar microfront at the top of the canopy. Pressure patterns associated with coherent structures appear to be largely responsible for the form of the correlations stated above.Pressure patterns calculated from an integrated Poisson equation, using observed velocity and temperature signals during coherent structures, match the main features of the observed pressure. Retrieval of the pressure fluctuations in this manner reveals that the mean wind shear/turbulence interaction term is dominant, but that important contributions arise from two other terms in the equation. Buoyancy effects are negligible. We show that the surface pressure signal is mainly created by the velocity field near the top of the forest, and present evidence to suggest that features of the sub-crown air movement result directly from this pressure field.     

Detection of turbulent coherent motions in a forest canopy part I: Wavelet analysis

Turbulence measurements performed at high frequencies yield data revealing intermittent and multi-scale processes. Analysing time series of turbulent variables thus requires extensive numerical treatment capable, for instance, of performing pattern recognition. This is particularly important in the case of the atmospheric surface layer and specifically in the vicinity of plant canopies, where largescale coherent motions play a major role in the dynamics of turbulent transport processes. In this paper, we examine the ability of the recently developedwavelet transform to extract information on turbulence structure from time series of wind velocities and scalars. It is introduced as a local transform performing a time-frequency representation of a given signal by a specific wavelet function; unlike the Fourier transform, it is well adapted to studying non-stationary signals. After the principles and the most relevant mathematical properties of wavelet functions and transform are given, we present various applications of relevance for our purpose: determination of time-scales, data reconstruction and filtering, and jump detection. Several wavelet functions are inter-compared, using simple artificially generated data presenting large-scale features similar to those observed over plant canopies. Their respective behaviour in the time-frequency domain leads us to assign a specific range of applications for each.     

The flow in a turbulent boundary layer upstream of a change in surface roughness

Modification of a turbulent flow upstream of a change in surface roughness has been studied by means of a stream function-vorticity model.A flow reduction is found upstream of a step change in surface roughness when a fluid flows from a smooth onto a rough surface. Above that layer and above the region of flow reduction downstream of a smooth-rough transition, a flow acceleration is observed. Similar flow modification can be seen at a rough-smooth transition with the exception that flow reduction and flow acceleration are reversed. Within a fetch of –500 < x/z ₀< + 500 (z ₀ is the maximum roughness length, the roughness transition is located at x/z ₀ = 0), flow reduction (flow acceleration) upstream of a roughness transition is one order of magnitude smaller than the flow reduction (flow acceleration) downstream of a smooth-rough (rough-smooth) transition. The flow acceleration (flow reduction) above that layer is two orders of magnitude.The internal boundary layer (IBL) for horizontal mean velocity extends to roughly 300z ₀ upstream of a roughness transition, whereas the IBL for turbulent shear stress as well as the distortion of flow equilibrium extend almost twice as far. For the friction velocity, an undershooting (overshooting) with respect to upstream equilibrium is predicted which precedes overshooting (undershooting) over new equilibrium just behind a roughness transition.The flow modification over a finite fetch of modified roughness is weaker than over a corresponding fetch downstream of a single step change in roughness and the flow stays closer to upstream equilibrium. Even in front of the first roughness change of a finite fetch of modified roughness, a distortion of flow equilibrium due to the second, downwind roughness change can be observed.     

The influence of buoyancy on third-order turbulent velocity statistics within a deciduous forest

The influence of atmospheric stability on the behaviour of the third moment of flow velocities observed inside a deciduous forest canopy is examined. Results suggest that buoyancy plays a dominant role in dictating the magnitude of gusts observed inside tall vegetation. Furthermore, an examination of the turbulence recorded throughout leaf fall inside the same forest indicates that larger velocity skewnesses are observed inside a canopy in full leaf than inside a sparse canopy. The behaviour of the measured terms in the non-dimensionalized rate equation of the third moment of canopy flow velocities is also examined. Turbulent diffusion and turbulence gradient interaction terms are largest in stable conditions in the upper canopy layer while these are most important in unstable conditions in the lower canopy layer. In all stability regimes, the turbulent diffusion term is the main source of skewness. The turbulence gradient interaction term, the residual and buoyant production terms all contribute to destroy skewness in stable conditions.     

Measurements and predictions of turbulent recirculating flow over a rectangular depression

Measurements of mean velocity and turbulence intensity components are reported for flow over a two-dimensional rectangular depression; these include measurements in the highly turbulent regions of recirculating flow. Predictions of the mean-flow variables were obtained from three finite-difference models: (1) a vorticity stream-function model using constant effective viscosity, (2) a primitive variable model using constant effective viscosity, and (3) a primitive variable model in which effective viscosity is computed from a turbulence model. The turbulent kinetic energy was also predicted by the last of these models. These predictions were compared with the measurements in order to evaluate what accuracy can be expected when state-of-the-art finite-difference models are applied to complex flow situations in the atmospheric environment. Some areas are noted where improvement of modeling capabilities for complex flows is still needed.     

A wind tunnel study of turbulent flow over a two-dimensional ridge

We present a wind-tunnel simulation of adiabatic atmospheric flow normal to a rough, two-dimensional ridge. The data are analyzed in physical streamline coordinates, which are described in some detail. The mean velocity speed-up on the hill top is adequately predicted by existing formulae while the behaviour of the wake flow fits into a pattern that emerges from other wind-tunnel experiments. The turbulent stresses evolve in response to the extra strain rates induced by the hill, streamline curvature and acceleration: % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4baFfea0dXde9vqpa0lb9% cq0dXdb9IqFHe9FjuP0-iq0dXdbba9pe0lb9hs0dXda91qaq-xfr-x% fj-hmeGabaqaciGacaGaaeqabaWaaeaaeaaakeaacaWG1bWaaWbaaS% qabeaaceaIYaGbaebaaaaaaa!3456!\[u^{\bar 2}\]is coupled strongly to acceleration while % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4baFfea0dXde9vqpa0lb9% cq0dXdb9IqFHe9FjuP0-iq0dXdbba9pe0lb9hs0dXda91qaq-xfr-x% fj-hmeGabaqaciGacaGaaeqabaWaaeaaeaaakeaadaqdaaqaaiaadw% hacaWG3baaaaaa!3462!\[\overline {uw}\]and % MathType!MTEF!2!1!+-% feaafeart1ev1aaatCvAUfeBSjuyZL2yd9gzLbvyNv2CaerbuLwBLn% hiov2DGi1BTfMBaeXatLxBI9gBaerbd9wDYLwzYbItLDharqqtubsr% 4rNCHbGeaGqiVu0Je9sqqrpepC0xbbL8F4baFfea0dXde9vqpa0lb9% cq0dXdb9IqFHe9FjuP0-iq0dXdbba9pe0lb9hs0dXda91qaq-xfr-x% fj-hmeGabaqaciGacaGaaeqabaWaaeaaeaaakeaacaWG3bWaaWbaaS% qabeaaceaIYaGbaebaaaaaaa!3458!\[w^{\bar 2}\]follow curvature. These differing responses lead to significant phase differences between the changes in the component stresses as the hill is traversed. An analogous response is seen in the components of turbulent stress divergence, which are computed as part of streamwise momentum budgets. Only very close to the surface is turbulent stress divergence comparable to the inertial and pressure terms in the momentum budget; over most of the flow regime, the mean flow response is approximately inviscid. Finally, we compare our results with data from other wind tunnel models and from real hills.     

On the canopy flow index of a tropical forest

The usefulness of the canopy flow index concept is demonstrated for a two-story evergreen tropical forest. A sample of about 2500 wind profiles was utilized. It encompasses a large range of ambient wind conditions and spans the whole monsoon cycle in Southeast Asia.It was found that the use of two canopy flow indices (one for the upper and one for the lower canopy) would be necessary to simulate the average canopy flow. For the upper canopy, an average value of 4.04 was obtained; for the lower canopy an index of 1.77 was computed. The indices seem to be independent of the ambient wind speed (if 2 m s^-1 is exceeded), yet strongly dependent on wind direction.     

An instantaneous 3-D analysis of turbulent flow in the wake of a hemisphere

Instantaneous three-dimensional velocity fields in the wake of a hemisphere located on an open channel bed are obtained by using multi-section flow visualization and a Mass-Consistent model. Instantaneous pictures of the organized structures are taken at a short time interval to investigate their behaviors at high Reynolds number. At high Reynolds number, the large vortex in the hemisphere wake is similar to the hairpin vortex observed at low Reynolds number. However, the long legs of the hairpin in the streamwise direction are not observed. A secondary hairpin vortex has been generated on the upstream side of the large hairpin vortex. Instantaneous spatial distributions of fluctuating velocity, vorticity production, etc. are presented and discussed.     

Taylor's hypothesis and spectra of velocity and temperature derivatives in a turbulent shear flow

Spectral densities of temporal velocity and temperature derivatives, measured in the atmospheric turbulent boundary layer and on the axis of a turbulent plane jet, are compared with the spectral densities of the ratios of these derivatives and of the local longitudinal instantaneous velocity. The comparison between the spectral densities, when both are normalized such that the areas under the spectra are equal, shows that the corrected spectrum is lower than the measured spectrum at frequencies larger than about one-seventh of the Kolmogorov frequency while the opposite trend is observed at low frequencies. A qualitatively similar result has been obtained when the measured velocity derivative spectrum is compared with that corrected using Lumley's method. While the unnormalized spectral densities and moments of the derivatives, as corrected by Lumley's method are smaller than the corresponding measured quantities, the opposite trend is found when the correction is made by dividing the temporal derivative by the longitudinal instantaneous velocity.     

The turbulent wind flow over an embankment

Under neutral conditions and with low winds, profiles of mean and turbulent wind components have been measured at various points across an embankment with aspect ratio 0.3. These measurements have been compared with and related to those of undisturbed flow in a horizontal homogeneous area on the windward side. The speed-up ratio, the turbulent and mean kinetic energy and the turbulent shear stress are examined. It is found that the flow stagnates on the windward side, accelerates above the crest, and separates behind the crest. The results show a remarkable dependence on the angle of attack. With an angle smaller than 90 °, the influence of the embankment on the mean wind field is reduced but is increased on the turbulent part, as lateral gustiness components are amplified. With the incoming flow normal to the embankment, maximum turbulence is found on the top of the ridge near the surface but at greater heights farther downwind. The same is true for the shear stress, but only for oblique flow, whereas for normal flow a minimum is found above the crest and a maximum on the windward side. Therefore, with varying angle of attack the embankment acts in different ways on mean wind, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent stress. Although the winds were low, all effects are clearly evident in the data.     

The impact of logging on the surrounding flow in a managed forest

The influence of a freshly logged area in a managed pine forest on the flow field is investigated by comparing sodar wind profile data over the forest canopy with the synoptic wind field extracted from North American Regional Reanalysis, National Centers for Environmental Prediction. As a consequence of the pressure gradient arising from the sharp temperature difference between the clearcut and the surrounding uncut forests, the local wind direction over the forest measured with the sodar departs dramatically from the prevailing synoptic wind direction when the latter is transverse to the clearcut-sodar direction. Sodar measurements also indicate systematic strong updrafts during daytime followed by nighttime downdrafts with wind coming from the logged area. This suggests the presence of horizontal advection carrying daytime warm air (or nighttime cool air) from the clearcut to the forested area. This paper also examines the influence of wind velocity, clearcut fetch, and solar radiation on locally generated circulations and advection. The presence of local circulations arising from contrasting neighboring surface characteristics well outside the footprint is of particular relevance for atmospheric flux sites where robust surface?Catmosphere exchange values are sought. This study highlights the high level of circumspection required at the time of identifying locations for flux sites. It also suggests vigilant monitoring of the surrounding landscape during eddy?Cflux measurements particularly in actively managed landscapes.     

Numerical simulation of turbulent convective flow over wavy terrain

By means of a large-eddy simulation, the convective boundary layer is investigated for flows over wavy terrain. The lower surface varies sinusoidally in the downstream direction while remaining constant in the other. Several cases are considered with amplitude up to 0.15H and wavelength ofH to 8H, whereH is the mean fluid-layer height. At the lower surface, the vertical heat flux is prescribed to be constant and the momentum flux is determined locally from the Monin-Obukhov relationship with a roughness lengthz _o=10^–4 H. The mean wind is varied between zero and 5w _*, wherew _* is the convective velocity scale. After rather long times, the flow structure shows horizontal scales up to 4H, with a pattern similar to that over flat surfaces at corresponding shear friction. Weak mean wind destroys regular spatial structures induced by the surface undulation at zero mean wind. The surface heating suppresses mean-flow recirculation-regions even for steep surface waves. Short surface waves cause strong drag due to hydrostatic and dynamic pressure forces in addition to frictional drag. The pressure drag increases slowly with the mean velocity, and strongly with /H. The turbulence variances increase mainly in the lower half of the mixed layer forU/w _*>2.