Physical modeling of complex airflows developing above rural terrains

Abstract

The rural atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow was reproduced in a wind tunnel at three different simulation length scales to investigate possible effects of the simulation length scale on flow characteristics. Performance of truncated vortex generators developed for part-depth ABL wind-tunnel simulations was tested in rural terrain exposure against the full-size Counihan vortex generators. A procedure to design the ABL developing above rural type terrain has been described. The 1:395 and 1:236 simulations were created as full-depth simulations, i.e., wind characteristics throughout an entire ABL were reproduced in the wind tunnel. The 1:208 simulation was a part-depth simulation, i.e., only a lower 70% of the ABL was experimentally modelled. The projected scaled-up ABL thicknesses are 395, 354, and 416 m full-scale in the 1:395, 1:236, and 1:208 simulations, respectively. Experimental results show similar trends in all three configurations not depending on the simulation length scale factor. This clearly indicates a possibility to physically, in the wind tunnel, reproduce the same rural atmospheric airflows at different simulation length scales.