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Scaling of Wall-Normal Turbulence Intensity and Vertical Eddy Structures in the Atmospheric Surface Layer

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Abstract

Adequate high-quality data on three-dimensional velocities in the atmospheric surface layer (height \(\delta \)) were acquired in the field at the Qingtu Lake Observation Array. The measurement range occupies nearly the entire logarithmic layer from approximately \(0.006\delta \)–\(0.2\delta \). The turbulence intensity and eddy structures of the velocity fluctuations in the logarithmic region were primarily analyzed, and their variations in the z (wall-normal) direction were revealed. The primary finding was that the turbulent intensity of wall-normal velocity fluctuations exhibits a sharp upswing in the logarithmic region, which differs from classic scaling law and laboratory results. The upswing of the wall-normal turbulence intensity in the logarithmic region is deemed to be linear based on an ensemble of 20 sets of data. In addition, the wall-normal extent of the correlated structures and wall-normal spectra were compared to low Reynolds number results in the laboratory.

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Acknowledgements

Funding was provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11490551, 11232006, 11421062), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. lzujbky-2016-k13).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Mechanics on Western Disaster and Environment, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Haibo Yang & Tianli Bo

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  1. Haibo Yang
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  2. Tianli Bo
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Correspondence to Tianli Bo.

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Yang, H., Bo, T. Scaling of Wall-Normal Turbulence Intensity and Vertical Eddy Structures in the Atmospheric Surface Layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 166, 199–216 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-017-0306-6

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