The near-neutral atmospheric surface layer: turbulence and non-stationarity

2007 ◽  
Vol 365 (1852) ◽  
pp. 859-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Metzger ◽  
B.J McKeon ◽  
H Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Surface Layer ◽  
Thermal Stratification ◽  
High Reynolds Number ◽  
Atmospheric Surface Layer ◽  
Western Desert ◽  
Hot Wire ◽  
Velocity Statistics ◽  
High Reynolds ◽  
Very High

The neutrally stable atmospheric surface layer is used as a physical model of a very high Reynolds number, canonical turbulent boundary layer. Challenges and limitations with this model are addressed in detail, including the inherent thermal stratification, surface roughness and non-stationarity of the atmosphere. Concurrent hot-wire and sonic anemometry data acquired in Utah's western desert provide insight to Reynolds number trends in the axial velocity statistics and spectra.

scholarly journals Interactions within the turbulent boundary layer at high Reynolds number

2011 ◽  
Vol 666 ◽  
pp. 573-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. GUALA ◽  
M. METZGER ◽  
B. J. McKEON
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Surface Layer ◽  
High Reynolds Number ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Atmospheric Surface Layer ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Wall Region ◽  
High Reynolds ◽  
Near Wall

Simultaneous streamwise velocity measurements across the vertical direction obtained in the atmospheric surface layer (Reτ ≃ 5 × 105) under near thermally neutral conditions are used to outline and quantify interactions between the scales of turbulence, from the very-large-scale motions to the dissipative scales. Results from conditioned spectra, joint probability density functions and conditional averages show that the signature of very-large-scale oscillations can be found across the whole wall region and that these scales interact with the near-wall turbulence from the energy-containing eddies to the dissipative scales, most strongly in a layer close to the wall, z+ ≲ 103. The scale separation achievable in the atmospheric surface layer appears to be a key difference from the low-Reynolds-number picture, in which structures attached to the wall are known to extend through the full wall-normal extent of the boundary layer. A phenomenological picture of very-large-scale motions coexisting and interacting with structures from the hairpin paradigm is provided here for the high-Reynolds-number case. In particular, it is inferred that the hairpin-packet conceptual model may not be exhaustively representative of the whole wall region, but only of a near-wall layer of z+ = O(103), where scale interactions are mostly confined.

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