Wind-Turbine Wakes in a Convective Boundary Layer: A Wind-Tunnel Study

Thermal stability changes the properties of the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer, and in turn affects the behaviour of wind-turbine wakes. To better understand the effects of thermal stability on the wind-turbine wake structure, wind-tunnel experiments were carried out with a simulated convective boundary layer (CBL) and a neutral boundary layer. The CBL was generated by cooling the airflow to 12–15 °C and heating up the test section floor to 73–75 °C. The freestream wind speed was set at about 2.5 m s^?1, resulting in a bulk Richardson number of ?0.13. The wake of a horizontal-axis 3-blade wind-turbine model, whose height was within the lowest one third of the boundary layer, was studied using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (S-PIV) and triple-wire (x-wire/cold-wire) anemometry. Data acquired with the S-PIV were analyzed to characterize the highly three-dimensional turbulent flow in the near wake (0.2–3.2 rotor diameters) as well as to visualize the shedding of tip vortices. Profiles of the mean flow, turbulence intensity, and turbulent momentum and heat fluxes were measured with the triple-wire anemometer at downwind locations from 2–20 rotor diameters in the centre plane of the wake. In comparison with the wake of the same wind turbine in a neutral boundary layer, a smaller velocity deficit (about 15 % at the wake centre) is observed in the CBL, where an enhanced radial momentum transport leads to a more rapid momentum recovery, particularly in the lower part of the wake. The velocity deficit at the wake centre decays following a power law regardless of the thermal stability. While the peak turbulence intensity (and the maximum added turbulence) occurs at the top-tip height at a downwind distance of about three rotor diameters in both cases, the magnitude is about 20 % higher in the CBL than in the neutral boundary layer. Correspondingly, the turbulent heat flux is also enhanced by approximately 25 % in the lower part of the wake, compared to that in the undisturbed CBL inflow. This study represents the first controlled wind-tunnel experiment to study the effects of the CBL on wind-turbine wakes. The results on decreased velocity deficit and increased turbulence in wind-turbine wakes associated with atmospheric thermal stability are important to be taken into account in the design of wind farms, in order to reduce the impact of wakes on power output and fatigue loads on downwind wind turbines.     

Comment on “Study on the reliable computation time of the numerical model using the sliding temporal correlation method”

The paper, “Study on the reliable computation time of the numerical model using the sliding temporal correlation method,” was published in Theoretical and Applied Climatology. In that work, the sliding temporal correlation analysis is employed to investigate the predictable time of two typical chaotic numerical models, namely the Lorenz system and the Chen chaotic system. However, it has been recently shown by us when using a linear scaling in time and state variables that generically, the Chen system is only a particular case of the Lorenz system, with time reversion if the parameter c is positive. Consequently, to study the Chen chaotic system is simply to consider the Lorenz system integrated backwards.     

Local high relief at the southern margin of the Andean plateau by 9 Ma: evidence from ignimbritic valley fills and river incision

A valley‐filling ignimbrite re‐exposed through subsequent river incision at the southern margin of the Andean (Puna) plateau preserves pristine geological evidence of pre‐late Miocene palaeotopography in the north western Argentine Andes. Our new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of the Las Papas Ignimbrites yields a plateau age of 9.24 ± 0.03 Ma, indicating valley‐relief and orographic‐barrier conditions comparable to the present‐day. A later infill of Plio–Pleistocene coarse conglomerates has been linked to wetter conditions, but resulted in no additional net incision of the Las Papas valley, considering that the base of the ignimbrite remains unexposed in the valley bottom. Our observations indicate that at least 550 m of local plateau margin relief (and likely >2 km) existed by 9 Ma at the southern Puna margin, which likely aided the efficiency of the orographic barrier to rainfall along the eastern and south eastern flanks of the Puna and causes aridity in the plateau interior.     

Tidal and annual variability of the population structure of Eurytemora affinis in the middle part of the Seine Estuary during 2005

Annual variability in abundance and population structure of the copepod Eurytemora affinis was studied in the maximum turbidity zone of the Seine Estuary in 2005. An Eulerian sampling strategy was applied monthly from March to July and from September to December. Chlorophyll a and suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentration, copepod abundance and stage distribution, and phytoplankton abundance were measured in sub-surface and near-bottom water during the ebb phase. Total E. affinis abundance was at a maximum in March and April (>200 × 10³ ind. m⁻³), and decreased from May to September (<25 × 10³ ind. m⁻³). This decrease corresponds to annual increases in temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a concentration and phytoplankton abundance, which was dominated by large diatoms, and decreases in SPM and river discharge. The phenology observed in 2005 was almost two months earlier compared to previous studies in the 1990s, when E. affinis reached maximum abundance in May and June. The low proportion of nauplii (<50%) in the population and high abundance of ovigerous females suggests that low recruitment is probably related to anomalously low temperatures in late winter (<5 °C). Whatever the horizontal position of the population in the estuary, adult and late copepodid stages are distributed in higher salinity than naupliar stages. Overall E. affinis population abundance was driven by parameters that characterize water masses at the tidal scale and by river discharge and chlorophyll a at the annual scale. By integrating the tidal effect, the high-frequency sampling protocol used appears to be optimal for investigating annual variability of planktonic communities in megatidal estuaries.     

Geophysical interpretation of a high-resolution seismic refraction profile in the Northern Apennines

A combined seismic and gravimetric interpretation in the Northern Apennines area (Italy) is presented. To the knowledge of the authors, this is one of the few attempts to apply tomographic methodology to a seismic refraction profile. This procedure, together with the classical interpretation for defining lower reflectors, led to the formulation of quite an accurate model of the upper crust. A gravity analysis was performed concurrently taking into account the seismic results at different depths which correspond to different frequency domains in the gravity signal. While the medium- and high-frequency patterns have been solved by trial-and-error, the regional trend has been modelled applying the collocation procedure to the gravity data.     

U-Pb zircon systematics at Gruinard Bay, northwest Scotland: implications for the early orogenic evolution of the Lewisian complex

The Gruinard Bay area of the mainland Lewisian complex comprises a metamorphosed suite of Archaean trondhjemites and minor granites enclosing remnants of older tonalitic gneiss and mafic to ultramafic enclaves. The U-Pb zircon dating yields ages of 2731 ±14 Ma and 2728 ±2 Ma for two trondhjemite and 2732 ±4 Ma for one granite sample, also revealing the presence of large amounts of inherited xenocrystic zircons. Although the region has been pervasively overprinted by retrogressive events in amphibolite to greenschist facies, the textural relations between biotite, hornblende, quartz and titaniferous minerals indicate that these minerals are pseudomorphs of pyroxene and high-Ti amphibole formed in hornblende-granulite facies. Structural relations link this metamorphism to a steep northeast-trending fabric coeval with the intrusion of the trondhjemites, dated at 2730 Ma. Dating of zircon in amphibolite and tonalite enclaves yields complex internal isotopic relations with apparent ages ranging from 2825 to 2740 Ma. This age range reflects new growth during the 2730 Ma metamorphic/metasomatic events, superimposed on older zircon phases which include combinations of xenocrystic cores, and magmatic and/or metamorphic growth phases whose mode of formation cannot clearly be resolved by imaging techniques (e.g. cathodoluminescence) alone. A pegmatitic vein that escaped the D₃ strain and related isotopic disturbances yields a precise age of 2792 ±2 Ma, which constrains to some degree the earliest orogenic events in the area. Age relationships displayed in the central block at Scourie–Badcall, and in the Gruinard Bay area indicate that petrogenetic events in both areas were comparable about 2800 Ma and that both areas underwent trondhjemitic magmatism about 2730 Ma. In contrast, at Gruinard Bay there is no isotopic evidence for a period of high-grade metamorphism and magmatism at 2490–2480 Ma that drastically affected the Scourie block indicating that at this stage the two regions occupied different levels of the crust. Received: 23 October 1997 / Accepted: 20 July 1998     

Some Basic Properties of the Surrogate Subgrid-Scale Heat Flux in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The development of improved subgrid-scale (SGS) models for large-eddy simulation of scalar transport in the atmospheric boundary layer requires an improved understanding of basic properties of the SGS fluxes. High frequency atmospheric wind speed and temperature data sampled at a height of 1.7 m are used to measure SGS heat fluxes and dissipation of temperature variance, by means of one-dimensional filtering and invoking Taylor's hypothesis. Conditional averaging is used to isolate interesting features of the SGS signals, and to relate them to the large-scale characteristics of the flow, such as the presence of coherent structures. Both mean and conditionally averaged SGS quantities are compared with those obtained using a standard eddy-diffusivity model. Within the limitations imposed by the one-dimensional data analysis, we observe that the model appears unable to reproduce important features of the real signals, such as the negative dissipation of temperature variance associated with strong negative resolved temperature gradients due to the ejection of warm air under unstable atmospheric stability conditions.     

Application of Correspondence Analysis in the Assessment of Groundwater Chemistry

Correspondence Analysis (CA) was used to determine the sources and processes that may explain the variation observed in datasets of groundwater analyses. The following method was adopted: (1) based on the observation of sympathies and antipathies between loadings signs, correspondence factors were represented by parameters with some pertinent geochemical meaning: (2) the relation between factors and parameters then was checked by Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) where factors acted as independent variables and parameters as dependent variables. Sample scores of the selected parameters gave the ability to separate polluted from nonpolluted waters, identify areas where pollution is dominated by agriculture and areas where contamination is controlled by domestic effluents, and describe weathering and agricultural activities in the sampled area. The practical example presented here anticipates the impact of agriculture and urban pollution on the chemistry of 160 water samples collected in a granitoid area at central Portugal (Fundão).