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LES validation of urban flow, part II: eddy statistics and flow structures

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Abstract

Time-dependent three-dimensional numerical simulations such as large-eddy simulation (LES) play an important role in fundamental research and practical applications in meteorology and wind engineering. Whether these simulations provide a sufficiently accurate picture of the time-dependent structure of the flow, however, is often not determined in enough detail. We propose an application-specific validation procedure for LES that focuses on the time dependent nature of mechanically induced shear-layer turbulence to derive information about strengths and limitations of the model. The validation procedure is tested for LES of turbulent flow in a complex city, for which reference data from wind-tunnel experiments are available. An initial comparison of mean flow statistics and frequency distributions was presented in part I. Part II focuses on comparing eddy statistics and flow structures. Analyses of integral time scales and auto-spectral energy densities show that the tested LES reproduces the temporal characteristics of energy-dominant and flux-carrying eddies accurately. Quadrant analysis of the vertical turbulent momentum flux reveals strong similarities between instantaneous ejection-sweep patterns in the LES and the laboratory flow, also showing comparable occurrence statistics of rare but strong flux events. A further comparison of wavelet-coefficient frequency distributions and associated high-order statistics reveals a strong agreement of location-dependent intermittency patterns induced by resolved eddies in the energy-production range. The validation concept enables wide-ranging conclusions to be drawn about the skill of turbulence-resolving simulations than the traditional approach of comparing only mean flow and turbulence statistics. Based on the accuracy levels determined, it can be stated that the tested LES is sufficiently accurate for its purpose of generating realistic urban wind fields that can be used to drive simpler dispersion models.

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Acknowledgements

The numerical simulations with the LES code FAST3D-CT were carried out at the Laboratories for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C., USA. The authors wish to express their thanks to Jay Boris, Mi-Young Obenschain and other collaborators there. Further thanks is given to colleagues at the Environmental Wind Tunnel Laboratory at the University of Hamburg. Financial funding by the German Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance as well as by the Ministry of the Interior of the City of Hamburg within the “Hamburg Pilot Project” is gratefully acknowledged (BBK research contract no. BBK III.1-413-10-364). Parts of the wind-tunnel model construction were financially supported by the KlimaCampus at the University of Hamburg.

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  1. Denise Hertwig

    Present address: Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, P.O. Box 243, Reading, RG6 6BB, UK

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  1. Meteorological Institute, University of Hamburg, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Denise Hertwig & Bernd Leitl

  2. Laboratories for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA

    Gopal Patnaik

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  1. Denise Hertwig
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Hertwig, D., Patnaik, G. & Leitl, B. LES validation of urban flow, part II: eddy statistics and flow structures. Environ Fluid Mech 17, 551–578 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-016-9504-x

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