Small-scale Turbulent Motions Research Articles

Investigating the influence of stepped roofs on wind dynamics using large eddy simulation

This study investigates airflow and turbulence within varying roof configurations in urban boundary layers by using the parallelized large-eddy simulation model (PALM). Key findings reveal stark contrasts in airflow between stepped and flat roof arrangements, with the former presenting dual counter-rotating vortices and enhanced vertical motion in one street, while the latter exhibited a primary vortex and several secondary vortices. Additionally, normalized turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) was markedly lower in flat roof configurations, with stepped roofs fostering more significant turbulence and small-scale turbulent motion. This variability intensified with decreasing step height and quantity. Vertical profiles further disclosed considerable velocity disturbances and larger Reynolds numbers in one street of stepped roofs, affirming the roof’s influence on turbulence generation and transport. Dispersive stress also displayed differing characteristics in various canyons. Turbulent momentum transport through eddies significantly differs between the windward and leeward streets of flat and stepped roofs. Further exploration into density stratification effects and scalar transport in stepped roofs would enhance practical implications.

Large-scale semi-organized rolls in a sheared convective turbulence: Mean-field simulations

Based on a mean-field theory of a non-rotating turbulent convection [T. Elperin et al., Phys. Rev. E 66, 066305, (2002)], we perform mean-field simulations (MFS) of sheared convection that takes into account an effect of modification of the turbulent heat flux by the non-uniform large-scale motions. This effect is caused by the production of additional essentially anisotropic velocity fluctuations generated by tangling of the mean-velocity gradients by small-scale turbulent motions due to the influence of the inertial forces during the lifetime of turbulent eddies. These anisotropic velocity fluctuations contribute to the turbulent heat flux. As the result of this effect, there is an excitation of large-scale convective-shear instability, which causes the formation of large-scale semi-organized structures in the form of rolls. The lifetimes and spatial scales of these structures are much larger compared to the turbulent scales. By means of MFS performed for stress-free and no-slip vertical boundary conditions, we determine the spatial and temporal characteristics of these structures. Our study demonstrates that the modification of the turbulent heat flux by non-uniform flows leads to a strong reduction of the critical effective Rayleigh number (based on the eddy viscosity and turbulent temperature diffusivity) required for the formation of the large-scale rolls. During the nonlinear stage of the convective-shear instability, there is a transition from a two-layer vertical structure with two rolls in the vertical direction before the system reaches steady-state to a one-layer vertical structure with one roll after the system reaches steady state. This effect is observed for all effective Rayleigh numbers. We find that inside the convective rolls, the spatial distribution of the mean potential temperature includes regions with a positive vertical gradient of the potential temperature caused by the mean heat flux of the convective rolls. This study might be useful for understanding the origin of large-scale rolls observed in atmospheric convective boundary layers, as well as in numerical simulations and laboratory experiments.

Response of a Turbulent Boundary Layer to an Imposed Synthetic Large-Scale Structure

The dynamic response of a zero-pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer (TBL) to an active flow control actuator was experimentally investigated. The experimental TBL had a sufficiently low momentum thickness Reynolds number, such that there were no energetic organized large-scale structures in the outer region, as evidenced from measurements of the premultiplied wavenumber–frequency spectra. The periodically pulsed plasma actuator, placed inside the outer region of TBL, introduced a synthetic large-scale structure, and the boundary-layer response to this synthetic structure downstream of the actuator at select wall-normal and streamwise locations was investigated. The turbulence amplitude modulating effect of the synthetic large-scale structure, within the inner and log-linear regions of the boundary layer, was isolated and analyzed using a phase-locked analysis. The dynamic interaction of the synthetic large-scale structure and smaller-scale turbulent motions was quantified using a modulation coefficient, and a strong positive correlation within the inner and log regions of the boundary layer was measured. The streamwise development of the synthetic large-scale structure and its modulating effect on the near-wall turbulence across several streamwise locations are described. Profiles of the phase speed at these streamwise locations were extracted and were found to be constant within the log region, further confirming a strong coupling between the near-wall fluctuations in turbulence intensity and the synthetic large-scale motions introduced in the outer region. Overall, the turbulence amplitude modulation effect induced by the synthetic large-scale structure was found to be dynamically similar to the large-scale modulation measured in canonical TBLs at higher Reynolds numbers.

Effects of turbulence on variations in early development of hydrogen and iso-octane flame kernels under engine conditions

The understanding and prediction of the early development of flame kernels are of high practical importance for the robust relight of aviation gas turbines and the control of cycle-to-cycle variations (CCV) of spark-ignition engines. CCV are known to correlate strongly with early flame kernel development and complicate the optimization of such engines in terms of safety, thermal efficiency, and engine emissions. The flame kernel initiated by a spark is initially small, in the very early combustion phase typically smaller than the size of the turbulent integral length scales. Therefore, the development of the flame kernel is dominated by local, intermittent flow fluctuations and can vary under the same nominal conditions. In this study, the effects of turbulence on the early development of premixed iso-octane and hydrogen turbulent flame kernels under realistic engine conditions are investigated through direct numerical simulations. Multiple realizations were simulated under the same nominal conditions for both fuels. Significant variations in flame kernel interactions with turbulence can be identified among different realizations. The fuel consumption rate varies by a factor of two, which is remarkable considering that only statistical differences in the local flow field are present between different realizations. Effects of different flow features of the initial flow fields on the flame kernel development were analyzed. It was found that the flow motion on the scale of the ignition radius, specifically the fluid deformation, which is characterized by the invariants of the strain rate tensor, determines the global shape of the kernel, while the variations of the kernel growth rate are mostly driven by the variations of the smallest turbulent scales. In particular, turbulence influences the flame surface area growth mainly through the tangential strain rate at the flame surface, which is shown to result from the small-scale turbulent motion. Due to differential diffusion effects, hydrogen and iso-octane exhibit significantly different flame responses to curvature, which is comprehensively studied for both fuels. The findings in this study will guide the development of combustion models that are capable to capture variations of the early flame kernels based on the local turbulence dissipation rate.

Reynolds number dependence of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface in temporally developing turbulent boundary layers

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of temporally developing turbulent boundary layers are performed with a wide range of Reynolds numbers based on the momentum thickness $Re_{\theta } = 2000$ – $13\,000$ for investigating the Reynolds number dependence of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) layer. The grid spacing in the DNS is determined carefully such that small-scale turbulent motions near the TNTI are well resolved. The outer edge of the TNTI layer, called the irrotational boundary, is detected with vorticity magnitude. The mean thicknesses of the TNTI layer, $\delta _{TNTI}$ , turbulent sublayer, $\delta _{TSL}$ , and viscous superlayer, $\delta _{VSL}$ , are found to be approximately $15\eta _{TI}$ , $10\eta _{TI}$ and $5\eta _{TI}$ , respectively, where $\eta _{TI}$ is the Kolmogorov scale taken in the turbulent region near the TNTI layer. The mean curvature of the irrotational boundary is also characterized by $\eta _{TI}$ . The shear parameter and the shear-to-vorticity ratio show that the mean shear effects near the TNTI layer are not significant for both large and small scales. The anisotropy tensors of Reynolds stress and vorticity suggest that the turbulence under the TNTI layer tends to be isotropic at high $Re_{\theta }$ , for which $\eta _{TI}/\delta \sim Re_{\theta }^{-3/4}$ is valid with the boundary layer thickness $\delta$ . The surface area of the irrotational boundary is consistent with the fractal analysis of the interface, where the fractal dimension $D_f$ is found to be $2.14$ – $2.20$ . The present results suggest that the mean entrainment rate per unit horizontal area normalized by the friction velocity varies slowly as $Re_{\theta }^{(3/4)(D_f-2)}$ for $Re_{\theta } \geq 4000$ .

The response of small-scale shear layers to perturbations in turbulence

The perturbation response of small-scale shear layers in turbulence is investigated with direct numerical simulations (DNS). The analysis of shear layers in isotropic turbulence suggests that the typical layer thickness is about four times the Kolmogorov scale $\eta$ . Response for sinusoidal perturbations is investigated for an isolated shear layer, which models a mean flow around the shear layers in turbulence. The vortex formation in the shear layer is optimally promoted by the perturbation whose wavelength divided by the layer thickness is about 7. These results indicate that the small-scale shear instability in turbulence is efficiently promoted by velocity fluctuations with a wavelength of about $30\eta$ . Furthermore, DNS are carried out for decaying turbulence initialised by the artificially modified velocity field of isotropic turbulence. The vortex formation from shear layers is accelerated under the influence of external perturbations with the efficient wavelength to promote the instability. When velocity fluctuations with this wavelength are eliminated by a band-cut filter, the shear layers tend to persist for a long time without producing vortices. These behaviours affect the number of vortices in turbulence, which increases and decreases when velocity perturbations with the unstable wavelength of the instability are artificially amplified and damped, respectively. The increase in the number of vortices results in the enhancement of kinetic energy dissipation, enstrophy production and strain self-amplification. These results indicate that the perturbation response of shear layers is important in the small-scale dynamics of turbulence as well as the modulation of small-scale turbulent motions by external disturbance.

Large-eddy simulation of separated turbulent flows over a three-dimensional hill using WRF and OpenFOAM

It is not clearly known about the limitations of the large-eddy simulation (LES) mode of an atmospheric model (WRF) in predicting the microscale flows for engineering purpose. This study chooses a typical separated turbulent flow past a three-dimensional axisymmetric hill and investigates the performance of WRF-LES in comparison with the popular CFD solver (OpenFOAM). The numerical models and conditions are set similarly between the two codes. The instantaneous visualization shows that both WRF-LES and OpenFOAM-LES can produce the primary flow features, including hairpin vortices, horseshoes, and surface-shear-induced vortices at different scales, with high similarity. Nevertheless, the turbulent kinetic energy in the near wake produced by WRF-LES is underestimated, in comparison with WRF-LES. The energy spectra suggest that WRF-LES using the high-order advection schemes has a stronger capacity of generating and maintaining small-scale turbulent motions than OpenFOAM-LES. Furthermore, the deviation of numerical dissipation behavior is examined between the two solvers.

Assessment and application of wavelet-based optical flow velocimetry (wOFV) to wall-bounded turbulent flows

The performance of a wavelet-based optical flow velocimetry (wOFV) algorithm in extracting high accuracy and high-resolution velocity fields from tracer particle images in wall-bounded turbulent flows is assessed. wOFV is first evaluated using synthetic particle images generated from a channel flow DNS of a turbulent boundary layer. The sensitivity of wOFV to the regularization parameter (lambda) is quantified and results are compared to cross-correlation-based PIV. Results on synthetic particle images indicated different sensitivity to under-regularization or over-regularization depending on which region of the boundary layer is being analyzed. Nonetheless, tests on synthetic data revealed that wOFV can modestly outperform PIV in vector accuracy across a broad lambda range. wOFV showed clear advantages over PIV in resolving the viscous sublayer and obtaining highly accurate estimates of the wall shear stress and thus normalizing boundary layer variables. wOFV was also applied to experimental data of a developing turbulent boundary layer. Overall, wOFV revealed good agreement with both PIV and a combined PIV + PTV method. However, wOFV was able to successfully resolve the wall shear stress and correctly normalize the boundary layer streamwise velocity to wall units where PIV and PIV + PTV showed larger deviations. Analysis of the turbulent velocity fluctuations revealed spurious results for PIV in close proximity to the wall, leading to significantly exaggerated and non-physical turbulence intensity in the viscous sublayer region. PIV + PTV showed only a minor improvement in this aspect. wOFV did not exhibit this same effect, revealing that it is more accurate in capturing small-scale turbulent motion in the vicinity of boundaries. The enhanced vector resolution of wOFV enabled improved estimation of instantaneous derivative quantities and intricate flow structure both closer to the wall and more accurately than the other velocimetry methods. These aspects show that, within a reasonable lambda range that can be verified using physical principles, wOFV can provide improvements in diagnostics capability in resolving turbulent motion occurring in the vicinity of physical boundaries.Graphical abstract

A high-resolution large-eddy simulation framework for wildland fire predictions using TensorFlow

Background Wildfires are becoming more severe, so we need improved tools to predict them over a wide range of conditions and scales. One approach towards this goal entails the use of coupled fire/atmosphere modelling tools. Although significant progress has been made in advancing their physical fidelity, existing tools have not taken full advantage of emerging programming paradigms and computing architectures to enable high-resolution wildfire simulations. Aims The aim of this study was to present a new framework that enables landscape-scale wildfire simulations with physical representation of combustion at an affordable cost. Methods We developed a coupled fire/atmosphere simulation framework using TensorFlow, which enables efficient and scalable computations on Tensor Processing Units. Key results Simulation results for a prescribed fire were compared with experimental data. Predicted fire behavior and statistical analysis for fire spread rate, scar area, and intermittency showed overall reasonable agreement. Scalability analysis was performed, showing close to linear scaling. Conclusions While mesh refinement was shown to have less impact on global quantities, such as fire scar area and spread rate, it benefits predictions of intermittent fire behavior, buoyancy-driven dynamics, and small-scale turbulent motion. Implications This new simulation framework is efficient in capturing both global quantities and unsteady dynamics of wildfires at high spatial resolutions.

Direct numerical simulation of planar turbulent jets: Effect of a pintle orifice

The effects of a pintle-shaped orifice on a planar turbulent jet flow at Reynolds number 4000, based on the inlet bulk mean velocity and the jet width, are studied using direct numerical simulations. Flapping of the jet along with a low-frequency modulation of the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability, in the presence of a pintle-shaped orifice, is observed. To compare the pintle-jet behavior, a free-jet is simulated as a reference case. The effects of the near-field region on the far-field flow characteristics have been investigated. In both the cases, the KH instability in the near-field influences the far-field jet, whereas the pintle-jet also exhibits a low-frequency flapping. In addition, oblique vortex pattern has been observed in the case of pintle-jet. The far-field flow statistics of the pintle-jet with a top-hat inlet interestingly agree with those of the free-jet with a hyperbolic tangent inlet. Temporal variation of the jet characteristics has been analyzed using spatiotemporal plots. In addition, the large- and small-scale turbulent motion have been studied using three anisotropic invariant maps (turbulence triangles, eigenvalue, and barycentric maps). Moreover, that the barycentric map gives a better visualization of the anisotropic behavior has been observed in the current study.

Energetics and vortex structures near small-scale shear layers in turbulence

Vortices and kinetic energy distributions around small-scale shear layers are investigated with direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence. The shear layers are examined with the triple decomposition of a velocity gradient tensor. The shear layers subject to a biaxial strain appear near vortices with rotation, which induce energetic flow that contributes to the shear. A similar configuration of rotating motions near the shear layers is observed in a multi-scale random velocity field, which is free from the dynamics of turbulence. Therefore, the mechanism that sustains shearing motion is embedded as a kinematic nature in random velocity fields. However, the biaxial strain is absent near the shear layers in random velocity because rotating motions appear right next to the shear layers. When a random velocity field begins to evolve following the Navier–Stokes equations, the shear layers are immediately tilted to the nearby rotating motions. This misalignment is a key for the vortex to generate the compressive strain of the biaxial strain around the shear layer. As the configuration of shearing and rotating motions arises from the kinematic nature, the shear layers with the biaxial strain are formed within a few times the Kolmogorov timescale once the random velocity field begins to evolve. The analysis with high-pass filtered random velocity suggests that this shear layer evolution is caused by small-scale turbulent motions. These results indicate that the kinematic nature of shear and rotation in velocity fluctuations has a significant role in the formation of shear layers in turbulence.

Multi-scale simulation of vertical dust transport considering turbulent motions

Analysis of observational data shows that the different scale dust transportation events have different contributions to dust transportation. The large-scale dust concentration fluctuations (dimensionless based on dust concentration) have a good linear relationship with large-scale shear wind speed (dimensionless based on frictional wind speed), and small-scale fluctuations have the similar results. Therefore, this multi-scale characteristic needs to be considered in the dust transport prediction. Guided by this idea, a multi-scale dust transport model based on the turbulent motions at different scales is proposed. The prediction results are in good agreement with the observation results. The analysis of the prediction results reveals the spatial variation of the dust concentration, the large-scale and small-scale vertical dust flux along the height. At the same time, our results show that under the action of large-scale turbulent motions, a channel for dust upward transportation will be formed, but not all large-scale turbulence events can transport dust to the upper part of the atmospheric surface layer. The small-scale turbulent motions does not affect the location of the dust transport channel, however mainly affects the size of the dust concentration, that is, ignoring the effect of small-scale turbulent motions will cause an overestimation of the dust concentration.

De-asymmetry of small-scale motions in wall-bounded turbulence

The present work focuses on the symmetry-breaking phenomenon in large-to-small amplitude modulation (AM) of wall-bounded turbulence. Using the recently proposed multi-component variational mode decomposition method, the volumetric velocity fields of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer being obtained by direct numerical simulation are decomposed into four three-dimensional intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), whose spanwise length scales are fully separated from each other. It is found that the first IMF mainly characterizes the streamwise large-scale (LS) and very-large-scale turbulent motions. Splatting and sputtering events are observed in the second IMF (2IMF), leading to the biased conditional probability density functions of near-wall u2IMF and v2IMF under the condition of extreme large-scale motions. This is in distinct contrast to the hierarchical self-similarity of the wall-normal profiles of Reynolds shear stress (RSS) of the last two IMFs (3IMF and 4IMF). When treating 2IMF as components of small-scale (SS) turbulent motions, such splatting and sputtering events lead to asymmetric AM effect; that is, the AM coefficients corresponding to positive and negative LS motions are asymmetric to each other. The underlying reason is that these strong quadrant events are spatially asymmetric and are tightly coupled with local LS motions. Based on this observation, a de-spatial-asymmetry (DSA) method is proposed to obtain asymmetry-free “universal” SS turbulent motions. This method includes the removal of the transitional 2IMF from SS motions, the de-amplitude modulation, and the length-scale rescaling. Analysis of single-point velocity statistics, RSS, as well as velocity spectrum, shows that the “universality” of SS motions derived from the DSA method is remarkably improved.

Elucidation of the singularity of fluid equations and the statistical properties of turbulence by vortex motion

Large-scale flows and small-scale turbulent motions are closely linked and understanding their dynamics can help to better predict and hope to mitigate climate events. This involves the detailed analysis of the Navier-Stokes equations combined with hard numerical calculations. Professor Yoshifumi Kimura, Graduate School of Mathematics, Nagoya University, Japan, wants to understand the intrinsic mechanisms of large-scale flows in the atmosphere and ocean that are known as Global-Scale Flows (GSFs). To do this he is developing methodologies for extraction and reduction of dynamical information in GSFs and taking into consideration the contrasting sides of GSFs; they appear chaotic but follow deterministic equations. In his work, Kimura is using mathematical, computational and data-scientific approaches, nonlinear singularity/vortex analysis, statistical theory/modelling of turbulence and wavelet analysis combined with high-quality observation and simulation data. It is important for Kimura to understand flow phenomena from the geometrical viewpoint, which has enabled him to unearth hidden relationships. He also relies on the use of supercomputers to perform simulations that allow him to understand and verify theories. A central idea for Kimura's studies is vortex motion, which is a key fundamental process in turbulence. He is therefore exploring the unique properties of vortex motions and their relationship to flows. Kimura has already been able to unearth new concepts and relations in vortex motion and turbulence and will continue in particular to explore vortex reconnections in greater detail.

Small-scale Turbulent Motion of the Plasma in a Solar Filament as the Precursor of Eruption

Abstract A filament, a dense cool plasma supported by the magnetic fields in the solar corona, often becomes unstable and erupts. It is empirically known that the filament often demonstrates some activations such as a turbulent motion prior to eruption. In our previous study, we analyzed the Doppler velocity of an Hα filament and found that the standard deviation of the line-of-sight velocity distribution in a filament, which indicates the increasing amplitude of the small-scale motions, increased prior to the onset of the eruption. Here, we present a further analysis on this filament eruption, which initiated approximately at 03:40 UT on 2016 November 5 in the vicinity of NOAA Active Region 12605. It includes a coronal line observation and the extrapolation of the surrounding magnetic fields. We found that both the spatially averaged microturbulence inside the filament and the nearby coronal line emission increased 6 and 10 hr prior to eruption, respectively. In this event, we did not find any significant changes in the global potential field configuration preceding the eruption for the past 2 days, which indicates that there is a case in which it is difficult to predict the eruption only by tracking the extrapolated global magnetic fields. In terms of space weather prediction, our result on the turbulent motions in a filament could be used as the useful precursor of a filament eruption.

Evolution of the OH and H2O Maser Emission in the Active Star-Forming Region IRAS 05358+3543 (S231)

We present the results of our observations of the star-forming region located in the Perseus arm and associated with the Sharpless nebula S231 in the lines of H2O at a wavelength of 1.35 cm and OH at a wavelength of 18 cm obtained with the Pushchino 22-m radio telescope (Russia) and the Nancay Large Radio Telescope (France), respectively. We provide a catalog of H2O maser spectra in the period from March 2003 to March 2020. The variability of the integrated flux that we have calculated based on the monitoring by Felli et al. (1987–2007) and our monitoring (2003–2020) has a quasi-cyclic pattern with a cycle duration from 4.3 to 7.7 yr. Flares of maser emission of both single and several features occurred in each activity cycle. The mean rise and decay times of the flare emission were $$0.30 \pm 0.02$$ and $$0.35 \pm 0.02$$ yr, respectively. The observed radial velocity drift and jumps of the H2O emission features can be a consequence of the impact of shocks emerging as the protostar activity rises on them. The complex pattern of variability shows that the H2O masing medium is fragmented and small-scale turbulent motions of matter can occur in it. We have observed the OH maser emission in the 1665 and 1667 MHz main lines and the 1720 MHz satellite line. A large number of OH emission features and their variability have been detected. We have found one Zeeman pair at ‒9.2 km/s with a small splitting, with the longitudinal magnetic field in the period 2008–2020 having decreased monotonically from 0.24 to 0.10 mG. For the three most intense features we have calculated the degrees of linear polarization and position angles. A correlation between the H2O and OH maser activities has been found.

Evolution of OH and H2O Maser Emission in the Active Star Formation Region NGC 2071

We present the observation results of the star forming region NGC 2071 in the 1.35-cm H2O line and 18-cm OH lines obtained with the 22-m radio telescope in Pushchino (Russia) and the large radio telescope in Nancay (France), respectively. The catalog of H2O maser emission spectra from December 2010 to January 2020 is given. The total flux variability for the entire monitoring period (1979–2020) has two activity cycles of close duration (approximately 20 years), which were accompanied by strong flares at intervals of one to four years. It is shown that the medium for the generation of H2O maser emission is greatly fragmented and contains small-scale turbulent motions of matter. The observed drift and radial velocity jumps of the H2O emission features can be a consequence of the complex, inhomogeneous structure of the maser emission regions. OH emission in the 1665 and 1667 MHz main lines and in the 1612 MHz satellite line in the radial velocity range of 7–12 km/s is broadband. The ratio of intensities differs from equilibrium. The substantiation of the observed ratio between the intensities of this emission and absorption in the 1720 MHz line is given. OH maser emission was observed in 2007 in the left circular polarization in the 1667 MHz line at 13.02 and 13.55 km/s with a flux density of ~0.3 Jy and a width of ~0.25 km/s for each of the velocities.

Study of the Dynamics of Convective Turbulence in the Solar Granulation by Spectral Line Broadening and Asymmetry

Abstract In quiet regions on the solar surface, turbulent convective motions of granulation play an important role in creating small-scale magnetic structures, as well as in energy injection into the upper atmosphere. The turbulent nature of granulation can be studied using spectral line profiles, especially line broadening, which contain information on the flow field smaller than the spatial resolution of an instrument. Moreover, the Doppler velocity gradient along a line of sight (LOS) causes line broadening as well. However, the quantitative relationship between velocity gradient and line broadening has not been understood well. In this study, we perform bisector analyses using the spectral profiles obtained using the spectropolarimeter of the Hinode/Solar Optical Telescope to investigate the relationship of line broadening and bisector velocities with the granulation flows. The results indicate that line broadening has a positive correlation with the Doppler velocity gradients along the LOS. We found excessive line broadening in fading granules, that cannot be explained only by the LOS velocity gradient, although the velocity gradient is enhanced in the process of fading. If this excessive line broadening is attributed to small-scale turbulent motions, the averaged turbulent velocity is obtained as 0.9 km s−1.

Evolution of the H2O Maser Emission in the Star-Forming Region S252A

Results of observations of the star-forming region S252A in the 1.35-cm H2O and 18-cm OH lines obtained using the 22-m Pushchino (Russia) and Nancay (France) radio telescopes are presented. A catalog of H2O maser spectra for 1995-2019 is presented. The variability of the integrated flux has two components: a cyclic component with a time interval between cycles ~30-35 yrs and a short-period component with a mean period of about 2.6 yrs. This may reflect non-stationary formation of a protostar. It is shown that the medium where the H2O maser emission and thermal OH emission are generated is strongly fragmented, and contains small-scale turbulent motions comparable to the thermal motions of the matter. The observed drift and jumps in the radial velocity of the H2O emission features could be a consequence of complex, non-uniform structure of the maser condensations.

Roof-level large- and small-scale coherent structures in a street canyon flow

The characteristics of large- and small-scale turbulent motions at roof-level in a street canyon flow were experimentally investigated along with their spatio-temporal organization and their mutual interaction in this region. Quadrant analysis was conducted to identify sweep and ejection events, whilst a spanwise spatial filter was used to identify the large-scale motions in the flow. The present analysis was conducted for six configurations; three upstream roughness arrays and two canyon width (W) to height (h) aspect ratios (AR = W/h = 1 and 3). The upstream roughness arrays consisted of three-dimensional cubes (plan area density, λp = 25%), 1h spaced two-dimensional bars (λp = 50%, corresponding to the skimming-flow regime) and 3h spaced two-dimensional bars (λp = 25%, corresponding to the wake-interference flow regime). It was found that the roughness configuration has a strong effect on the size of the quadrant events in the street canyon, with the wake-interference flow regimes producing significantly larger sweep and ejection events than the skimming-flow regimes. Upstream wake-interference flow regimes were found to have a significantly greater temporal correlation than in the skimming-flow regimes. Large-scale streamwise and spanwise velocity components were found to have large spatio-temporal correlation integral scales, in agreement with the large-scale structures existing in the overlying boundary layer. It was also confirmed that there is a coupling between large- and small-scales at roof-level of the street canyon. While sweep and ejection events were found to be due to the dynamical contribution of the small-scales, their occurrence is shown to be coupled with that of large-scale low- and high-momentum regions, respectively.