Langevin equation model of dispersion in the convective boundary layer

Abstract

This dissertation presents the development and evaluation of a Lagrangian stochastic model of vertical dispersion of trace material in the convective boundary layer (CBL). This model is based on a Langevin equation of motion for a fluid particle, and assumes the fluid vertical velocity probability distribution is skewed and spatially homogeneous. This approach can account for the effect of large-scale, long-lived turbulent structures and skewed vertical velocity distributions found in the CBL. The form of the Langevin equation used has a linear (in velocity) deterministic acceleration and a skewed randomacceleration. For the case of homogeneous fluid velocity statistics, this ""linear-skewed" Langevin equation can be integrated explicitly, resulting in a relatively efficient numerical simulation method. It is shown that this approach is more efficient than an alternative using a "nonlinear-Gaussian" Langevin equation (with a nonlinear deterministic acceleration and a Gaussian random acceleration) assuming homogeneous turbulence, and much more efficient than alternative approaches using Langevin equation models assuming inhomogeneous turbulence. "Reflection" boundary conditions for selecting a new velocity for a particle that encounters a boundary at the top or bottom of the CBL were investigated. These include one method using the standard assumption that the magnitudes of the particle incident and reflected velocities are positively correlated, and two alternatives in which the magnitudes of these velocities are negatively correlated and uncorrelated. The constraint that spatial and velocity distributions of a well-mixed tracer must be the same as those of the fluid, was used to develop the Langevin equation models and the reflection boundary conditions. The two Langevin equation models and three reflection methods were successfully tested using cases for which exact, analytic statistical properties of particle velocity and position are known, including well-mixed spatial and velocity distributions. Simulations of laboratory experiments of CBL dispersion show that both homogeneous Langevin equation models can simulate the important aspects of dispersion in the CBL. The negatively-correlated-speed reflection boundary condition simulates the observed dispersion of material in the CBL significantly better than either of the other two reflection methods.