Turbulent boundary layer flow over regularly and irregularly arranged truncated cone surfaces

Aiming to study the rough-wall turbulent boundary layer structure over differently arranged roughness elements, an experimental study was conducted on flows with regular and random roughness. Varying planform densities of truncated cone roughness elements in a square staggered pattern were investigated. The same planform densities were also investigated in random arrangements. Velocity statistics were measured via two-component laser Doppler velocimetry and stereoscopic particle image velocimetry. Friction velocity, thickness, roughness length and zero-plane displacement, determined from spatially averaged flow statistics, showed only minor differences between the regular and random arrangements at the same density. Recent a priori morphometric and statistical drag prediction methods were evaluated against experimentally determined roughness length. Observed differences between regular and random surface flow parameters were due to the presence of secondary flows which manifest as high-momentum pathways and low-momentum pathways in the streamwise velocity. Contrary to expectation, these secondary flows were present over the random surfaces and not discernible over the regular surfaces. Previously identified streamwise-coherent spanwise roughness heterogeneity does not seem to be present, suggesting that such roughness heterogeneity is not necessary to sustain secondary flows. Evidence suggests that the observed secondary flows were initiated at the front edge of the roughness and sustained over irregular roughness. Due to the secondary flows, local turbulent boundary layer profiles do not scale with local wall shear stress but appear to scale with local turbulent shear stress above the roughness canopy. Additionally, quadrant analysis shows distinct changes in the populations of ejection and sweep events.

Effects of change in orientation and surface roughness of terrain oil thermally induced up slope flows in western Ghats: A numerical study

ABSTRACT. The effect of change in orientation and surface roughness of terrain on the daytime up slope flow is investigated using a 2-dimensional mesoscale model. A realistic orography profile of western ghat is chosen for the purpose. Twelve hour of integrations are performed starting from sunrise. The numerical simulation have shown that the intensity of up slope flows remained practically unaffected by change of orientation of terrain. However, increase in roughness length decreases the intensity of developed flows. For comparison purposes, the results of previous investigators are verified with a change in slope angles.

Comparative Study of the Near-Surface Typhoon Wind Profile Fitting between Offshore and Onshore Areas

The study of typhoon wind profiles, especially offshore typhoon wind profiles, has been constrained by the scarcity of observational data. In this study, the Doppler wind lidar was used to observe the offshore wind profiles during Super Typhoon Mangkhut and onshore wind profiles during Super Typhoon Lekima. Four wind profile models, including the power law, logarithmic law, Deaves–Harris (D-H), and Gryning, were selected in the height range of 0–300 m to fit the wind profile. The variations in the power exponent with the mean wind speed and roughness length were also analyzed. The results showed that the wind profiles fitted by the four models were generally in good agreement with the observed wind profiles with correlation coefficients greater than 0.98 and root mean square deviations less than 0.5 m s−1. For the offshore case, the fitting degree of all wind profile models improved with increasing mean wind speed. Specifically, the D-H model had the highest fitting degree when the horizontal mean wind speed at 40 m was in the range of 8–25 m s−1, while the log-law model had the highest fitting degree when the wind speed exceeded 30 m s−1. For the onshore case, the fitting degree of the four wind profile models deteriorated with increasing mean wind speed, and the log-law model had the highest fitting degree in all wind speed intervals from 8 to 30 m s−1. For both offshore and onshore cases, the power exponent was less affected by mean wind speed and increased with increasing roughness length, and the logarithmic empirical model proposed in this study could well characterize the relationship between the power exponent and roughness length.

Constant flux layers with gravitational settling: links to aerosols, fog and deposition velocities

Turbulent boundary layer concepts of constant flux layers and surface roughness lengths are extended to include aerosols and the effects of gravitational settling. Interactions between aerosols and the Earth's surface are represented via a roughness length for aerosol which will generally be different from the roughness lengths for momentum, heat or water vapour. Gravitational settling will impact vertical profiles and the surface deposition of aerosols, including fog droplets. Simple profile solutions are possible in neutral and stably stratified atmospheric surface boundary layers. These profiles can be used to predict deposition velocities and to illustrate the dependence of deposition velocity on reference height, friction velocity and gravitational settling velocity.

Aerodynamic roughness length of crevassed tidewater glaciers from UAV mapping

The aerodynamic roughness length (z0) is an important parameter in the bulk approach for calculating turbulent fluxes and their contribution to ice melt. However, z0 estimates for heavily crevassed tidewater glaciers are rare or only generalised. This study used uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) to map inaccessible tidewater glacier front areas. The high-resolution images were utilised in a structure-from-motion photogrammetry approach to build digital elevation models (DEMs). These DEMs were applied to five models (split across transect and raster methods) to estimate z0 values of the mapped area. The results point out that the range of z0 values across a crevassed glacier is large, by up to 3 orders of magnitude. The division of the mapped area into sub-grids (50 m × 50 m), each producing one z0 value, accounts for the high spatial variability in z0 across the glacier. The z0 estimates from the transect method are in general greater (up to 1 order of magnitude) than the raster method estimates. Furthermore, wind direction (values parallel to the ice flow direction are greater than perpendicular values) and the chosen sub-grid size turned out to have a large impact on the z0 values, again presenting a range of up to 1 order of magnitude each. On average, z0 values between 0.08 and 0.88 m for a down-glacier wind direction were found. The UAV approach proved to be an ideal tool to provide distributed z0 estimates of crevassed glaciers, which can be incorporated by models to improve the prediction of turbulent heat fluxes and ice melt rates.

Spatial Distribution of Shrubs Impacts Relationships among Saltation, Roughness, and Vegetation Structure in an East Asian Rangeland

Vegetation influences the occurrence of saltation through various mechanisms. Most previous studies have focused on the effects of vegetation on saltation occurrence under spatially homogeneous vegetation, whereas few field studies have examined how spatially heterogeneous cover affects saltation. To examine how spatial heterogeneity of vegetation influences saltation, we surveyed the vegetation and spatial distribution of shrubs and conducted roughness measurements at 11 sites at Tsogt-Ovoo, Gobi steppe of Mongolia, which are dominated by the shrubs Salsola passerina and Anabasis brevifolia. Saltation and meteorological observations were used to calculate the saltation flux, threshold friction velocity, and roughness length. The spatial distribution of shrubs was estimated from the intershrub distance obtained by calculating a semivariogram. Threshold friction velocity was well explained by roughness length. The relationships among roughness, saltation flux, and vegetation cover depended on the spatial distribution of shrubs. When the vegetation was distributed heterogeneously, roughness length increased as the vegetation cover decreased, and the saltation flux increased because the wake interference flow became dominant. When the vegetation was spatially homogeneous, however, the saltation flux was suppressed even when the vegetation cover was small. These field experiments show the importance of considering the spatial distribution of vegetation in evaluating saltation occurrence.

The Effects of Ocean Surface Waves on Global Intraseasonal Prediction: Case Studies with a Coupled CFSv2.0-WW3

Ocean surface gravity waves have enormous effects on physical processes at the atmosphere–ocean interface. The effects of wave-related processes on global intraseasonal prediction were evaluated after we incorporated the WAVEWATCH III model into the Climate Forecast System model version 2.0 (CFSv2.0), with the Chinese Community Coupler version 2.0. Several major wave-related processes, including the Langmuir mixing, Stokes-Coriolis force with entrainment, air-sea fluxes modified by Stokes drift and momentum roughness length, were evaluated in two groups of 56-day experiments, one for boreal winter and the other for boreal summer. Comparisons were performed against in-situ buoys, satellite measurements and reanalysis data, to evaluate the influence of waves on intraseasonal prediction of sea surface temperature (SST), 2-m air temperature (T02), mixed layer depth (MLD), 10-m wind speed (WSP10) and significant wave height (SWH) in CFSv2.0. Overestimated SST and T02, as well as underestimated MLD in mid and high latitudes in summer from original CFSv2.0 are clearly improved, mainly due to enhanced vertical mixing generated by Stokes drift. The largest regional mean SST improvement reaches 35.89 % in the Southern Ocean. For WSP10 and SWH, the wave-related processes generally lead to reduction of biases in regions where wind speed and SWH are overestimated. The decreased SST caused by Stokes drift-related mixing stabilizes marine atmospheric boundary layer, weakens wind speed and then SWH. Compared with the NDBC buoy data, the overestimated WSP10 is improved by up to 13.52 % in boreal summer. The increased roughness length due to waves leads to some reduction in the originally overestimated wind speed and SWH, with the largest SWH improvement of 11.93 % and 20.05 % in boreal winter and summer respectively. The effects of Stokes drift and current on air-sea fluxes are investigated separately. Their overall effects on air-sea fluxes reduce the overestimated WSP10 by up to 17.31 % and 23.21 % in boreal winter and summer respectively. These cases are helpful for the future development of the two-way CFS-wave coupled system.