The “Inactive” Eddy Motion and the Large-Scale Turbulent Pressure Fluctuations in the Dynamic Sublayer

Abstract

Abstract The statistical structure of the turbulent pressure fluctuations was measured in the dynamic sublayer of a large grass-covered forest clearing by a free air static pressure probe and modeled using Townsend's hypothesis. Townsend's hypothesis states that the eddy motion in the equilibrium layer can be decomposed into an active component, which is only a function of the ground shear stress and height, and an inactive component, which is produced by turbulence in the outer region. It is demonstrated that the inactive eddy motion contributes significantly to the pressure and longitudinal velocity power spectra for wavenumbers much smaller than that corresponding to the height above the ground surface. Because of the importance of this inactive eddy motion contribution, it was possible to derive and validate a scaling law for the pressure power spectrum at low wavenumbers. The root-mean-square pressure was derived from the ground shear stress using simplifications to the Poisson equation that relate t...