Abstract
The turbulence in a laboratory convective mixed layer is probed more extensively than in the preliminary study of Willis and Deardorff (1974), and results presented. Turbulence intensities, spectra and probability distributions using mixed-layer scaling compare favorably with similarly scaled field measurements not available or plentiful in 1974. However, the velocity spectra in the convection tank exhibit only a short inertial subrange due to the close proximity of the dissipation subrange to the energy-containing range.
The turbulence budget suggests that the convergence of the vertical transport of pressure fluctuations is a rather important term.
Results on the entrainment rate are also presented, using both mixed-layer scaling and local interfacial scaling.
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Deardorff, J.W., Willis, G.E. Further results from a laboratory model of the convective planetary boundary layer. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 32, 205–236 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00121880
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00121880