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Effect of thermal stratification on the growth of the internal boundary layer

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Abstract

The growth of a two-dimensional internal boundary layer (IBL), which develops when a neutral or unstably stratified flow over a uniform terrain encounters a step-change in surface roughness, is numerically investigated by a higher-order turbulence closure theory. It is found that the thickness δ of the IBL increases as δ ~ x n, where x is the downstream distance from the roughness-transition line. For a given set of upstream conditions, the value of the exponent n depends only on the Monin-Obukhov length L, and it is approximately independent of the roughness-change parameter M = In (z01/z02). At large fetches, δ increases markedly with increasing instability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, Bedford, Mass., USA

    K. S. Rao

  2. Environmental Research and Technology, Inc., 696 Virginia Road, Concord, Mass., USA

    K. S. Rao

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  1. K. S. Rao
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NRC-NAS Resident Research Associate at AFCRL, 1973–74

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Rao, K.S. Effect of thermal stratification on the growth of the internal boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 8, 227–234 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00241339

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00241339

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