Crayfish chimneys function as burrow-ventilation structures

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
James A Stoeckel ◽  
Mary Szoka ◽  
Hisham A Abdelrahman ◽  
Jeremiah D Davis ◽  
David M Blersch ◽  
...  

Abstract Most crayfish species are capable of constructing underground burrows. Burrow construction provides crayfishes the potential to actively engineer microhabitat and optimize local environmental conditions. Little attention, however, has been paid to quantifying the environmental outcomes of burrow morphology. We examined the potential of chimneys to ventilate burrows via wind-assisted buoyancy ventilation. We first conducted proof-of-concept trials in the field using smoke tracers. We then used a wind tunnel to quantify effects of wind velocity, chimney height, burrow orientation, and tunnel angle on model burrow ventilation rates. We developed a predictive model to predict burrow airflow based on endogenous and exogenous factors, and proofed the model with field measurements from a natural burrow. Proof-of-concept trials showed that during breezy conditions (i.e., 8–16 km−h wind gusts), smoke generated near a natural burrow was rapidly drawn into the non-chimney entry, through the burrow, and out the chimney. Wind-tunnel trials revealed significant effects of chimney height and wind velocity on burrow airflow, but no significant effects of burrow orientation towards the prevailing wind direction, nor of the angle of the burrow beneath the chimney. A model developed from wind-tunnel trials predicted air velocities exiting a theoretical chimney that were within 85% of observed velocities exiting natural chimney-burrow complexes. We conclude that crayfish chimneys can serve as passive ventilation systems for crayfish burrows, with chimney height and wind velocity exerting particularly strong effects on airflow. Costs and benefits associated with chimney construction and ventilation are still speculative but should comprise a productive line of research for future studies focused on burrowing crayfish ecology and conservation.

Author(s):  
Valentina Hurtado ◽  
Santiago Arango ◽  
Luis Muñoz ◽  
Omar López

Abstract Wind speed has large influence on the results of road tests applied to bicycles. For this reason, this paper presents the design process of an onboard anemometer dedicated to bicycle testing. The design provides an affordable way to quantify both magnitude and direction of the wind velocity relative to the bicycle, allowing recording on arbitrary wind conditions that could arise during a test. The design methodology was structured with two major phases. The first was centered on the proof-of-concept for the use of a multi-hole pitot tube as main component for the onboard anemometer. The second was focused on the design of the structure, considering both packaging and structural integrity. The prototype of anemometer was tested in a wind tunnel to verify its performance, and it was also tested under severe vibrations to verify its structural integrity. The results showed that this concept can be used as a part of the bicycle instrumentation for road tests.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Porpiglia ◽  
Paolo Schito ◽  
Tommaso Argentini ◽  
Alberto Zasso

<p>This paper introduces a new methodology to assess the influence of a windscreen on the crosswind performance of trains running on a bridge. Considering the difficulties encountered in both carrying out wind tunnel tests that consider the vehicle speed or complete CFD analyses, a simplified CFD approach is here discussed. Instead of simulating simultaneously the windscreen plus the moving train, the numerical problem is split into two parts: firstly, a simulation of the windshield alone is used to extract the perturbed velocity profile at the railway location; secondly, this profile used as an inlet condition for the wind velocity acting on an isolated train. The method is validated against a complete train plus windshield simulation in terms of pressure distribution and aerodynamic force coefficients on the train, and flow streamlines. This approach opens to the possibility of evaluating the aerodynamic performance of a vehicle on bridges considering bridge and vehicle as separated. Wind velocity profiles measured on the bridge during a wind tunnel campaign could be used as the initial condition for numerical simulations on vehicles.</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Ki-Pyo You ◽  
Young-Moon Kim

Meteorological observatories use measuring boards on even ground in open areas to measure the amount of snowfall. In order to measure the amount of snowfall, areas unaffected by wind should be found. This study tried to determine the internal wind flow inside a windbreak fence, identifying an area unaffected by wind in order to measure the snowfall. We performed a computational fluid dynamics analysis and wind tunnel test, conducted field measurements of the type and height of the windbreak fence, and analyzed the wind flow inside the fence. The results showed that a double windbreak fence was better than a single windbreak fence for decreasing wind velocity. The double fence (width 4 m, height 60 cm, and fixed on the bottom) has the greatest wind velocity decrease rate at the central part of octagonal windbreak.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Maeda ◽  
E. Ismaili ◽  
H. Kawabuchi ◽  
Y. Kamada

This paper exploits blade surface pressure data acquired by testing a three-bladed upwind turbine operating in the field. Data were collected for a rotor blade at spanwise 0.7R with the rotor disc at zero yaw. Then, for the same blade, surface pressure data were acquired by testing in a wind tunnel. Analyses compared aerodynamic forces and surface pressure distributions under field conditions against analogous baseline data acquired from the wind tunnel data. The results show that aerodynamic performance of the section 70%, for local angle of attack below static stall, is similar for free stream and wind tunnel conditions and resemblances those commonly observed on two-dimensional aerofoils near stall. For post-stall flow, it is presumed that the exhibited differences are attributes of the differences on the Reynolds numbers at which the experiments were conducted.


2001 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 159-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukari Takeuchi ◽  
Shun’ichi Kobayashi ◽  
Takeshi Sato ◽  
Kaoru Izumi ◽  
Kenji Kosugi ◽  
...  

AbstractSnowdrifting processes and the wind-velocity profiles around a collector and a blower snow fence were investigated in a cold wind tunnel. The purpose was to ascertain the effect of wind direction on drift control by snow fences. Three different cases were studied for both types of snow fence, and the resultant snowdrifts were compared. In the first case, the snow fence was perpendicular to the wind direction. In the second and third cases, it was tilted by 30° and 45°. When the collector snow fence was tilted, the amounts of snowdrift were much less than when the fence was perpendicular to the wind direction, because the area with low wind velocity was reduced to half behind the tilted fence. On the other hand, the blowing effect of the blower snow fence increased when it was set up at an angle to the wind direction. It is necessary to investigate the position where the blown snow is deposited by the tilted blower snow fence.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Graf ◽  
Olaf Müller

This paper describes a method for the acquisition of the flying shape of spinnakers in a twisted flow wind tunnel. The method is based on photogrammetry. A set of digital cameras is used to obtain high resolution images of the spinnaker from different viewing angles. The images are post-processed using image-processing tools, pattern recognition methods and finally the photogrammetry algorithm. Results are shown comparing design versus flying shape of the spinnaker and the impact of wind velocity and wind twist on the flying shape. Finally some common rules for optimum spinnaker trimming are investigated and examined.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad Steinvall ◽  
Yuri Khotyaintsev ◽  
Giulia Cozzani ◽  
Andris Vaivads ◽  
Christopher Owen ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Solar wind current sheets have been extensively studied at 1 AU. The recent advent of Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter (SolO) has enabled us to study these structures at a range of heliocentric distances.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We present SolO observations of current sheets in the solar wind at heliocentric distances between 0.55 and 0.85 AU, some of which show signatures of ongoing magnetic reconnection. We develop a method to find the deHoffman-Teller frame which minimizes the Y-component (the component tangential to the spacecraft orbit) of the electric field. Using the electric field measurements from RPW and magnetic field measurements from MAG, we use our method to determine the deHoffman-Teller frame of solar wind current sheets. The same method can also be used on the Alfv&amp;#233;nic turbulence and structures found in the solar wind to obtain a measure of the solar wind velocity.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our preliminary results show a good agreement between our modified deHoffmann-Teller analysis based on the single component E-field, and the conventional deHoffman-Teller analysis based on 3D plasma velocity measurements from PAS. This opens up the possibility to use the RPW and MAG data to obtain an estimate of the solar wind velocity when particle data is unavailable.&lt;/p&gt;


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2015-2033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Niedermeier ◽  
Jens Voigtländer ◽  
Silvio Schmalfuß ◽  
Daniel Busch ◽  
Jörg Schumacher ◽  
...  

Abstract. The interactions between turbulence and cloud microphysical processes have been investigated primarily through numerical simulation and field measurements over the last 10 years. However, only in the laboratory we can be confident in our knowledge of initial and boundary conditions and are able to measure under statistically stationary and repeatable conditions. In the scope of this paper, we present a unique turbulent moist-air wind tunnel, called the Turbulent Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator (LACIS-T) which has been developed at TROPOS in order to study cloud physical processes in general and interactions between turbulence and cloud microphysical processes in particular. The investigations take place under well-defined and reproducible turbulent and thermodynamic conditions covering the temperature range of warm, mixed-phase and cold clouds (25∘C>T>-40∘C). The continuous-flow design of the facility allows for the investigation of processes occurring on small temporal (up to a few seconds) and spatial scales (micrometer to meter scale) and with a Lagrangian perspective. The here-presented experimental studies using LACIS-T are accompanied and complemented by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations which help us to design experiments as well as to interpret experimental results. In this paper, we will present the fundamental operating principle of LACIS-T, the numerical model, and results concerning the thermodynamic and flow conditions prevailing inside the wind tunnel, combining both characterization measurements and numerical simulations. Finally, the first results are depicted from deliquescence and hygroscopic growth as well as droplet activation and growth experiments. We observe clear indications of the effect of turbulence on the investigated microphysical processes.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li ◽  
Peng ◽  
Ji ◽  
Hu ◽  
Ding

Correlation research on urban space and pedestrian–level wind (PLW) environments is helpful for improving the wind comfort in complex urban space. It could also be significant for building and urban design. Correlation research is usually carried out in a space with clear urban spatial characteristics, so it is necessary to define the space first. In this paper, a typical urban area in Nanjing, China, is selected as the research object, and a spatial partition method is used to divide the real complex urban space into subspaces. The urban spatial characteristics of such subspaces are quantified using three urban spatial indices: openness (O), area (A), and shape (S). By comparing the quantitative results, 24 (12 pairs) subspaces with prominent urban spatial indices are selected as the correlation research cases. The 24 subspaces also provide a reference for the layout of the measurement points in a wind tunnel experiment. This is a new arrangement for locating the measurement points of a wind tunnel for correlation research. In the experiment, 45 measurement points are located, and the mean wind velocity of four different wind directions at 45 measurement points is experimented. The results clearly show that, when the experimental conditions are the same, the changes of mean wind velocity ratio (UR) of 24 (12pairs) subspaces under the four experimental wind directions are close. The URs of the subspaces are not significantly affected by the wind direction, which is affected more by the subspaces’ spatial characteristics. When making the correlation analysis between mean wind speed ratio and spatial characteristics’ indices, a direct numerical comparison was not able to find a correlation. By comparing the difference values of mean wind speed (△UR) and indices between each pair of subspaces, the correlation between UR and openness of subspaces were found. Limited by spatial partition method, the correlation between UR and the other indices was not obvious.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1569-1582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam L. Houston ◽  
Roger J. Laurence ◽  
Tevis W. Nichols ◽  
Sean Waugh ◽  
Brian Argrow ◽  
...  

AbstractResults are presented from an intercomparison of temperature, humidity, and wind velocity sensors of the Tempest unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) mobile mesonet (NSSL-MM). Contemporaneous evaluation of sensor performance was facilitated by mounting the Tempest wing with attached sensors to the NSSL-MM instrument rack such that the Tempest and NSSL-MM sensors could collect observations within a nearly identical airstream. This intercomparison was complemented by wind tunnel simulations designed to evaluate the impact of the mobile mesonet vehicle on the observed wind velocity.The intercomparison revealed strong correspondence between the temperature and relative humidity (RH) data collected by the Tempest and the NSSL-MM with differences generally within sensor accuracies. Larger RH differences were noted in the presence of heavy precipitation; however, despite the exposure of the Tempest temperature and humidity sensor to the airstream, there was no evidence of wet bulbing within precipitation. Wind tunnel simulations revealed that the simulated winds at the location of the NSSL-MM wind monitor were ~4% larger than the expected winds due to the acceleration of the flow over the vehicle. Simulated vertical velocity exceeded 1 m s−1 for tunnel inlet speeds typical of a vehicle moving at highway speeds. However, the theoretical noncosine reduction in winds that should result from the impact of vertical velocity on the laterally mounted wind monitor was found to be negligible across the simulations. Comparison of the simulated and observed results indicates a close correspondence, provided the crosswind component of the flow is small.


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