Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, Sept. 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Timothy P. Stanton. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-99). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Thechnology / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1980. / Grant no: OCE 76-81190. Photocopy of typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-98).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2007. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-137). Also available on the World Wide Web.

The stably stratified nocturnal boundary layer (SBL) can be classified into two distinct regimes: one with moderate to strong winds, weak stratification and mechanically sustained turbulence (wSBL) and the other one with moderate to weak wind conditions, strong stratification and collapsed turbulence (vSBL). With the help of a hidden Markov model (HMM) analysis of the three dimensional state variable space of stratification, mean wind speeds, and wind shear the SBL can be classified in these two regimes in both the Reynolds-averaged as well as turbulence state variables. The two-regime SBL is a generic structure at different tower sites around the world independent of the location specific conditions. Besides clustering the data the HMM analysis calculates the most likely regime occupation sequence which allows for detailed analysis of the structure of the meteorological state variables in conditions of very persistent nights. Conditioning on these very persistent nights clear influences of external drivers (such as pressure gradient force and low level cloud cover) are found. As the HMM analysis captures regime transitions accurately changes of state variables and external drivers across transitions can easily be assessed. Different meteorological state variables behave in times of turbulence collapse (wSBL to vSBL transition) and turbulence recovery (vSBL to wSBL transitions) as expected physically. The results reveal further that clear precursors for transitions in the state variable profiles or external drivers are cannot be determined and that on observed timescales regime transitions are relatively sharp. The absence of clear precursors suggests that parameterisations of SBL regime behaviour and turbulence in the two regimes in weather and climate models have to be stochastic. As regime statistics are relatively insensitive to changes in the stochastic properties of the HMM analysis observed regime statistics are compared to ’freely-running’ Markov chains. The SBL regime statistics do not follow a simple Markov process and more complex parameterisations are necessary. A possible approach of parameterising SBL regime behaviour stochastically using climatological results from this analysis is presented. / Graduate / 2019-12-17

No description available.

In order to improve the state of turbulence modeling for three-dimensional flows, more detailed information on the fundamental physics of the flow is required. It has been recognized for some time now that organized motions or coherent structures in the flow play a large part in determining the flow characteristics, and there is now a large body of literature dealing with various aspects of coherent structures. However, almost all of the existing literature deal with mean two-dimensional flows with very little reported for mean three-dimensional flows. In the present study, measurements were performed in a three-dimensional, pressure-driven turbulent boundary layer (<i>Re</i>_θ = 5936) in the flow around a wing-body junction with a variety of multiple-sensor probes, to examine the features of the coherent structures in the flow. This test flow has a number of practical applications and was selected because of its strong three-dimensional nature and the availability of an extensive set of mean-flow measurements from previous investigations. The measurements were carried out with a hot-wire rake with sixteen sensors spaced approximately logarithmically over 25.4 mm (1 inch), a parallel-sensor probe with two parallel sensors spaced approximately 4.8 mm apart, a rotatable wall-sensor probe with two wall-mounted hot-film sensors spaced 6.93 mm apart and a traversable wall-sensor probe with two variable-spacing wall-mounted hot-film sensors. The hot-wire rake was used to examine the structure of the flow in both the Y (normal to the wall) and Z (spanwise) directions. The parallel and rotatable wall-sensor probes were used to look at the angular characteristics of the coherent structures in the flow and at the wall, respectively, and the spanwise structure of the flow at the wall was examined through the traversable wall-sensor probe. The results of the measurements show that the spectral characteristics of the flow are affected by three-dimensional effects. The direction of motion of the coherent structures lags behind the local mean-velocity vectors in the X-Z plane (parallel to the wall) with very little variation with frequency (structure size). Unlike two-dimensional boundary layers, the spectral variation of the convective wave speed does not collapse when normalized with the local mean velocity and friction velocity in the outer and inner regions, respectively. In the outer region of the boundary layer, the distribution of the intermittency with Y appears to agree quite closely with previously reported results for two-dimensional boundary layers. The mean ejection frequency in the near-wall flow and the frequency at the peak of the first moment of the wall shear-stress power spectrum show fairly close agreement, consistent with previously reported results for a two dimensional boundary layer. The measurements with the traversable wall-sensor probe indicate the presence of an organized structure, probably low-speed streaks in the near-wall region, with a preferred spanwise spacing. This spanwise spacing was found to be Î Î * = 85 and 135 at two different measurement stations. somewhat different from the well accepted value of Î Î * = 100 for two-dimensional boundary layers. Time-delayed correlations of the velocity signal over a range of Y locations reveal an inclined linear wavefront similar to previously reported results for a two-dimensional boundary layer. / Ph. D.

Some important Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications and flow solvers are strongly influenced by the effects of low Mach number and/or high heat transfer rates. The present study focuses on the validation of a new flow solver over a range of Mach numbers and heat transfer rates of practical interest. The validation study addresses both algorithm performance via convergence rate and accuracy via comparisons with an analytical similarity solution, for flow past a flat plate held at a constant temperature. The ranges of flow conditions investigated in this study are (0.1 <= Mref <= 3.0) and (0.1 <= Twall <= 10.0). The algorithm has been found to converge well for most flow conditions tested. Optimal convergence rate is more strongly influenced by choice of time step in subsonic flows than in supersonic flows. Validation comparisons show the algorithm to maintain a consistent and acceptable level of accuracy for most tested flow speeds and wall temperatures, with most deviations attributable to flow physics constraints imposed by the theoretical result or to grid resolution. One possible exception, where the outer range of capability of the present algorithm may have been reached, is noted.

Numerical simulations of incompressible, two-dimensional, monochromatically and bichromatically forced laminar free shear layers are performed on the basis of a vorticity-velocity formulation of the complete Navier-Stokes equations employing central finite differences. Spatially periodic shear layers developing in time (temporal model) are compared with shear layers developing in the stream-wise direction (spatial model). The regimes of linear growth and saturation of the fundamental are quantitatively scrutinized, the saturation of the subharmonic and vortex merging are investigated, and the effects of a forcing phase-shift between fundamental and subharmonic. For the spatial model the appearance of an unforced subharmonic was also examined. It was found that contrary to temporal shear layers a significant control of vortex merging by means of a forcing phase-shift and vortex shredding are not possible in spatial shear layers due to strong dispersion.

No description available.

Detailed current profiles between the sediment-water interface and 20 cm above it reveal a viscous sublayer in the bottom boundary layer on the Oregon continental shelf. Data from three field experiments are used to test fundamental assumptions about boundary layer flow in the ocean. The first study, discussed in Chapter 1, evaluates the hypothesis that, in the absence of the obvious influence of topographic irregularities, the flow behaves like a universally similar, neutrally-buoyant flow over a smooth wall. The second study, discussed in Chapter 2, evaluates the influence which irregular small-scale topography may have on the near-bed flow, while the third, discussed in Chapter 3, examines streamwise velocity fluctuations in the viscous Sublayer and buffer layer and evaluates the hypothesis that spectra from the viscous sublayer and buffer layer of laboratory and geophysical boundary layer flows can be reduced to universal forms. although the thickness of the viscous sublayer scales with v/u, as required by universal similarity, the non-dimensional sublayer thickness is not as constant as in neutrally-buoyant laboratory flows. Even in the absence of the obvious effects of bottom irregularities, the near-bed flow is not as simple as smooth-walled boundarylayer flows in the laboratory. In the second study, it is shown that when the near-bed flow experiences resistance due to form drag as well as skin friction, the constant stress boundary layer assumption is not valid close to the sediment-water interface. Th the third study, it is shown that non-dimensionalized spectra of streamwise velocity fluctuations in the viscous sublayer and buffer layer at the ocean floor are very similar to those found in the laboratory. / Graduation date: 1982