Search results for "Boundary layer"
showing 10 items of 162 documents
High‐resolution simulations of convective cold pools over the northwestern Sahara
2009
[1] Cooling by evaporation of convective precipitation in the deep and dry subcloud layer over desert regions can generate intense downdrafts and long-lived and extensive atmospheric density currents. The strong gusts at their leading edges can cause so-called haboob dust storms. Despite their importance for the dust cycle, the ability of state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction models to realistically simulate the associated convective cold pools has been investigated very little to date. During the first field campaign of the Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment in southern Morocco in May/June 2006, several density currents were observed. They were triggered by deep moist convection over …
The impact of overshooting deep convection on local transport and mixing in the tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS)
2015
Abstract. In this study we examine the simulated downward transport and mixing of stratospheric air into the upper tropical troposphere as observed on a research flight during the SCOUT-O3 campaign in connection to a deep convective system. We use the Advanced Research Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF-ARW) model with a horizontal resolution of 333 m to examine this downward transport. The simulation reproduces the deep convective system, its timing and overshooting altitudes reasonably well compared to radar and aircraft observations. Passive tracers initialised at pre-storm times indicate the downward transport of air from the stratosphere to the upper troposphere as well as upward tr…
Instability of the melt flow in VGF growth with a traveling magnetic field
2009
The linear instability of a thermally stratified melt flow in the VGF configuration driven by a traveling magnetic field (TMF) is considered numerically and experimentally. The dependency of the instability threshold on the governing parameters is found for several cuts through the parameter space covering a wide range of possible applications. In a first approximation the linear instability occurs when the dimensionless TMF forcing parameter reaches the magnitude of the Grashof number. This is particularly true in a medium-sized crucible where the first instability is axisymmetric and sub-critical. As the Grashof number increases the flow develops self-similar boundary layers and the insta…
Uncertainties in future climate predictions due to convection parameterisations
2013
Abstract. In the last decades several convection parameterisations have been developed to consider the impact of small-scale unresolved processes in Earth System Models associated with convective clouds. Global model simulations, which have been performed under current climate conditions with different convection schemes, significantly differ among each other in the simulated transport of trace gases and precipitation patterns due to the parameterisation assumptions and formulations, e.g. the computation of convective rainfall rates, calculation of entrainment and detrainment rates etc. Here we address sensitivity studies comparing four different convection schemes under alternative climate…
<title>Two-dimensional and dynamic (2DD) method of visualization of the flow characteristics in a convection boundary layer using infrared ther…
2000
The paper presents the 2D and dynamic (2DD) method of using infrared (IR) thermography for the visualization of the cooling efficiency of a heated wall, as this method was applied in an experimental investigation. The 2DD method allows the outer surface temperature measured by the IR thermography device to be worked out relative to the bulk coolant-fluid temperature. In this way the 2DD method makes visible the qualitative and quantitative flow characteristics within the thin contact layers at the inner surface of the wall. This flow characteristics, and more specifically the pattern of stream lines (for the detection of dead zones) and the distribution of the temperature differences betwee…
A study of hydrothermal convection in saturated porous media
1993
Abstract Because of its relevance to many geological and technical problems, hydrothermal convection is investigated here mainly with the aid of numerical models by a systematic analysis of the properties of this type of convection for a range of super-critical Rayleigh numbers. Calculations were performed for two-dimensional models with constant properties in a region of aspect ratio 2. The principal results in the case of temperature fixed at the impermeable top and bottom are the following for the Nusselt number Nu, the cell aspect ratio a, and the boundary layer thickness δ: Nu ≈ 1.7 R0.5, a ≈ 1.3 R−0.4, δc ≈ 0.4 R−0.4 for 2.5 R = R f /R f ∗ and Rf and R f ∗ are the ambient and critical…
Breakdown of Burton-Prime-Slichter approach and lateral solute segregation in radially converging flows
2005
A theoretical study is presented of the effect of a radially converging melt flow, which is directed away from the solidification front, on the radial solute segregation in simple solidification models. We show that the classical Burton-Prim-Slichter (BPS) solution describing the effect of a diverging flow on the solute incorporation into the solidifying material breaks down for the flows converging along the solidification front. The breakdown is caused by a divergence of the integral defining the effective boundary layer thickness which is the basic concept of the BPS theory. Although such a divergence can formally be avoided by restricting the axial extension of the melt to a layer of fi…
High Reynolds number Navier-Stokes solutions and boundary layer separation induced by a rectilinear vortex
2013
Abstract We compute the solutions of Prandtl’s and Navier–Stokes equations for the two dimensional flow induced by a rectilinear vortex interacting with a boundary in the half plane. For this initial datum Prandtl’s equation develops, in a finite time, a separation singularity. We investigate the different stages of unsteady separation for Navier–Stokes solution at different Reynolds numbers Re = 103–105, and we show the presence of a large-scale interaction between the viscous boundary layer and the inviscid outer flow. We also see a subsequent stage, characterized by the presence of a small-scale interaction, which is visible only for moderate-high Re numbers Re = 104–105. We also investi…
Heavy Gas Dispersion Modelling Over a Topographically Complex Mesoscale: A CFD Based Approach
2005
Abstract: Potentially dangerous events involving heavy gas dispersion and their severe consequences have been largely publicized by the media. Simplified models have been widely applied to describe the effects of these accidents. However, most simplified models deal with flat terrain scenarios and are based on quite crude simplifications of the complex phenomenology involved. In this paper the possibility of simulating the dispersion of heavy gas clouds over a large topographically complex area (tens of km) by a general purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is investigated. The aim is that of setting up a tool able to produce a realistic description of such dispersion processes, w…
Trace gas composition in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone: a case study based on aircraft observations and model simulations
2017
We present in situ measurements of the trace gas composition of the upper tropospheric (UT) Asian summer monsoon anticyclone (ASMA) performed with the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO) in the frame of the Earth System Model Validation (ESMVal) campaign. Air masses with enhanced O3 mixing ratios were encountered after entering the ASMA at its southern edge at about 150 hPa on 18 September 2012. This is in contrast to the presumption that the anticyclone's interior is dominated by recently uplifted air with low O3 in the monsoon season. We also observed enhanced CO and HCl in the ASMA, which are tracers for boundary layer pollution and tropopause layer (TL) air or stratosp…