A comparison of methods to determine the flow angle components of atmospheric velocity vectors is presented. The atmospheric turbulence probes used to measure behavior of the atmosphere use different methods to obtain this information and there is some confusion as to which method is best. Although the methods are all based upon potential flow theory, the details about how the atmospheric and flight parameters are measured makes a difference to the design of an atmospheric turbulence probe and carrier research aircraft. This paper presents the mathematical theory behind five methods of obtaining atmospheric flow angle measurements from a moving aircraft. One of these methods, the Flush Air Data Sensing system developed by NASA has not previously been used in this particular application before but is found to be just as accurate as more commonly used methods that utilize a hemispherical sensing head. In fact, none of the methods presented show any statistical improvement at measuring flow angles over the others. It is therefore suggested that the best method is one that considers the probe and aircraft as a whole system rather than preferring one method over another.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 2009. / Includes abstract. Also issued in print. Includes bibliographical references. Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations.

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

High frequency turbulent temperature measurements were performed above clipped grass in the lower atmospheric surface layer in conjunction with three-dimensional turbulent velocities. Measurements were also made of turbulent temperature inside a corn canopy and at the canopy top. The 500Hz temperature time series were collected over periods of varying intervals, to a maximum of 24 hours. / The multifractal analysis was performed on several datasets. First scaling properties of the temperature and the velocity fields were examined. Our results suggest that scaling is not observed throughout the entire range but on different regimes. The physically related regimes corresponding to the clipped grass experiment include the inertial subrange, the trend for diurnal peak, and a range between them, all together featuring the existence of the hourly gap. In the canopy experiment, except for the above feature, the effects of the presence of plant objects are also reflected by the presence of two regimes different from those for clipped grass field. / The double trace moment technique was performed on the inertial subrange of the temperature and velocity fields measured over clipped grass to obtain the parameters characterizing the multifractal fields. The variability of the parameters with the atmospheric stability was investigated and no apparent difference between stable and unstable conditions was found. The results reveal that those fields are universal multifractals with the characteristic parameters $ alpha$ near 1.7 and C$ sb1$ ranging from 0.04 to 0.12, implying that the fields can be modeled by a log-Levy process with unbounded singularities. We also found that the critical moment q$ rm sb{s}$ for the multifractal phase transition is close to 4.

Copies of author's previously published articles inserted. / Bibliography: p. 227-245. / xiii, 245 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Describes the observations of gravity waves and turbulence in the lower atmosphere and their analysis using theory and modeling studies. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics, 2000?

Originally issued as author's Ph. D. thesis, University of Canterbury, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-222). Thesis available online from Univ. of Canterbury.

O incêndio florestal é uma complexa combinação da energia liberada na forma de calor devido à combustão dos produtos oriundos da pirólise da vegetação e o transporte dessa energia para o ar e para a vegetação à sua volta. O primeiro é o domínio da química e ocorre na escala de moléculas e o segundo é o domínio da física e ocorre em escalas de até quilômetros. É a interação desses processos sobre uma ampla gama de escalas temporais e espaciais envolvidas no incêndio florestal que faz a modelagem do seu comportamento uma tarefa tão difícil. A propagação do incêndio através de vegetação rasteira e folhas mortas foi simulada numericamente usando a formulação física do WFDS. A abordagem utilizada foi tridimensional e transiente, e baseada em uma descrição dos fenômenos físicos que contribuem para a propagação de um incêndio de superfície através de uma camada de combustível. Neste cenário de incêndio, existem duas regiões: vegetação e ar, cada uma com suas propriedades físicas e químicas e, embora elas precisem ser integradas no mecanismo de solução, há diferentes fenômenos que ocorrem em cada uma. Na região de vegetação, a abordagem é representá-la como partículas submalha cercadas de ar. O caráter heterogêneo da vegetação, como sua natureza, folhagens, pequenos galhos, etc. foi levado em conta usando propriedades físicas médias características da floresta amazônica. Os fenômenos na região de vegetação são a evaporação da sua umidade, a pirólise e a transferência de calor por radiação e por convecção. Na região do ar, a combustão com chama ocorre em um ambiente turbulento, onde as transferências de calor por radiação e por convecção desempenham um papel significativo. Para incorporar a radiação dos gases de combustão, o modelo físico emprega o método de volumes finitos, que resolve a equação de transferência de calor por radiação como uma equação de transporte para um número finito de discretos ângulos sólidos, e que pode ser usado em uma ampla faixa de espessuras óticas e meios participantes. A combustão turbulenta para a fase gasosa é modelada com base no modelo Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC). O modelo de combustão turbulenta adota a hipótese de reação química infinitamente rápida entre o combustível e o ar e é controlado apenas pela velocidade de mistura desses reagentes. Esse modelo representa bem a física de incêndios em ambientes ventilados, como é o caso dos incêndios florestais. Para incluir os efeitos do transporte turbulento é utilizado o método Large Eddy Simulation (LES), que calcula explicitamente as grandes estruturas turbulentas, mas trata a dissipação e a cascata inercial em escalas menores usando aproximações na escala submalha. As regiões de vegetação e ar trocam massa e energia. O comportamento da mistura gasosa resultante da degradação térmica da vegetação e das reações de combustão é regido pelas equações de Navier-Stokes. As equações que regem os modelos físicos são formuladas como equações diferenciais parciais que são resolvidas por métodos numéricos. O método utilizado para discretização das equações é o método de diferenças finitas em malha deslocada. O modelo numérico utilizado resolve as equações de Navier-Stokes para fluidos compressíveis usando o filtro de Favre. A dissipação de energia cinética é obtida através de um fechamento simples para a tensão turbulenta: o modelo de coeficiente constante de Deardorff. O transporte turbulento de energia e massa é contabilizado pelo uso, respectivamente, de números de Prandtl e de Schmidt turbulentos constantes. Os resultados das simulações do modelo físico descrito foram comparados aos dados experimentais obtidos em campo para a propagação do incêndio na floresta amazônica. Apesar da idealização das condições de combustível, vento e as incertezas dos dados experimentais, as previsões do modelo estão na mesma ordem de grandeza dos experimentos. As taxas de propagação do incêndio experimentais variam de 0,12 +/-0,06 a 0,35+/-0,07 m/min. Mesmo considerando-se o desvio padrão da taxa de propagação do incêndio experimental, os valores das taxas simuladas ficaram dentro do erro experimental somente em dois de sete casos. As simulações mostraram que os parâmetros importantes para o modelo são a área superficial por volume da vegetação, sua massa específica aparente e sua umidade. Como o coeficiente de absorção por radiação é função direta da massa específica aparente e da área superficial por volume da vegetação, esses parâmetros afetam o comportamento numérico do incêndio de superfície. De acordo com os resultados das simulações numéricas, a umidade da vegetação também tem importância no incêndio de superfície. A temperatura inicial da vegetação e a umidade do ar na faixa de variação analisada não influenciam a taxa de propagação do incêndio. As simulações também mostraram que o processo de radiação é muito importante, e afeta diretamente todos os demais processos e a taxa de propagação do incêndio. A convecção tem importância muito menor que a radiação na condição de ausência de vento externo. A coerência das taxas de propagação do incêndio experimental e numérica em função da massa específica aparente de material combustível e da umidade da vegetação foi investigada. O modelo numérico é coerente em todas as nove combinações de casos. Já o experimento é coerente em quatro combinações. Com base nas comparações entre cada dois casos experimentais e as respectivas simulações numéricas, nota-se que as taxas de propagação a partir das simulações numéricas foram mais coerentes que as experimentais. / Forest fire is a complex combination of energy released as heat due to the combustion of the products from the vegetation pyrolysis and the transport of this energy to the surrounding air and vegetation. The first is the domain of chemistry and occurs on the molecular scale, and the second is the domain of physics and occurs at scales up to kilometers. It is the interaction of these processes on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales involved in forest fires that makes modeling its behavior such a challenging task. The spread of fire through small plants and dead leaves was simulated numerically using WFDS physical formulation. The approach used was three-dimensional and transient, based on a description of the physical phenomena that contribute to the spread of a surface fire through a layer of fuel. In this fire scenario, there are two regions: vegetation and air, each one with its physical and chemical properties and, although they need to be integrated into the solution mechanism, there are different phenomena that occur in each one. In the vegetation region, the approach is to represent it as subgrid particles surrounded by air. The heterogeneity of the vegetation, such as its nature, leaves, twigs, etc. was taken into account by using average physical properties that are representative of the Amazon forest. The phenomena in the vegetation region are the evaporation of its moisture, pyrolysis, heat transfer by radiation and convection. In the air region, the flaming combustion occurs in a turbulent environment, and heat transfer by radiation and convection play a significant role. To incorporate the radiation from the combustion gases, the physical model employs the finite volumes method, solving the radiation transfer equation as a transport equation for a finite number of discrete solid angles, which can be used in a wide range of optical thicknesses and participating media. Turbulent combustion for the gaseous phase is modeled using the Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) model. The mixing controlled turbulent combustion model adopts the assumption of infinitely fast chemical reaction between the fuel and air. This model represents well the fire physics in ventilated areas, as is the case of forest fires. To include the turbulent flow effects, it is used the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method, which explicitly calculates the large turbulent structures, but models the dissipation and inertial cascade using approximations in the sub-grid scale. The vegetation and air regions exchange mass and energy. The behavior of the gas mixture resulting from the vegetation thermal degradation and combustion reactions is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. The equations governing the physical model are formulated as partial differential equations, which are solved by numerical methods. The method used for discretization of the equations is the finite difference method on a staggered grid. The numerical model solves the Navier-Stokes equations for compressible fluids using the Favre filter. Dissipation of kinetic energy is achieved through a simple closure for the turbulent stress: the constant coefficient Deardorff model. The turbulent transport of heat and mass is accounted for by use of constant turbulent Prandtl and Schmidt numbers, respectively. The physical model simulation results were compared to experimental data obtained in the field for the spread of fire in the Amazon forest. Despite of the idealized conditions of fuel, wind and the uncertainties of the experimental data, the model predictions and the experiments are in the same order of magnitude. Experimental rate of spread range from 0.12 +/- 0.06 to 0.35 +/- 0.07 m/min. Even considering rate of spread experimental standard deviation, simulated rate values were within experimental error only in two of seven cases. The simulations showed that the important parameters for the model are the vegetation surface area to volume ratio, its bulk density and moisture. As the radiation absorption coefficient is a direct function of vegetation bulk density and surface area to volume ratio, these parameters affect the numeric behavior of the surface fire. According to the numerical simulations results, vegetation moisture is also important in the surface fire scenario. Vegetation initial temperature and air humidity in the range analyzed does not influence the rate of spread. The simulations also showed that the radiation process is very important and directly affects all other processes and rate of spread. Convection heat transfer has much less significance than radiation heat transfer in the absence of external wind. The consistency of the experimental and numerical rate of spread, as a function of combustible material bulk density and vegetation moisture was investigated. The numerical model is consistent in all nine case combinations. The experiment is consistent in four cases. Based on comparisons between each two experiments and their numerical simulations, it is noted that the rate of spread variation from the numerical simulation is more consistent than the experimental one.

The main motive for studying turbulent flow in an urban environment is to understand the processes governing momentum, heat and mass exchange between the atmosphere and a very inhomogeneous and aerodynamically rough surface. This exchange regulates the microclimate wherein about 40% of the current world population lives. An understanding of its mechanisms is essential for a variety of reasons and applications. The structure of the atmosphere close to this irregular surface is not homogeneous and there is reason for concern that traditional micrometeorological theories are inadequate to describe the turbulent transfer in this environment. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the turbulent transfer mechanism and the applicability of the Monin Obukhov similarity framework in an unstable suburban atmosphere. In addition the first full set of energy balance data including longer term directly-measured sensible and latent heat fluxes is presented. The results suggest that the (co)spectra in respect to shape and location of the peaks are relatively insensitive to surface features. They generally agree well with homogeneous surface layer data with the exceptions of u, T, uw and possibly q which all exhibit slight anomalies which may be attributed to particular surface features. The non-dimensional dissipation functions and most of the integral statistics results follow the trends predicted by similarity theory (i.e. they are a function of stability), however, the magnitudes are often smaller. Analysis of the correlation coefficients shows that under near neutral and slightly unstable conditions the transfers of momentum and heat are most efficient (and enhanced compared to the homogeneous surface layer) whereas the transfer efficiency of moisture is generally least efficient. This results in a dissimilar behaviour of heat and moisture. It is shown that the humidity statistics not only depend on surface boundary conditions but are also influenced by the entire PBL. Observational support in this respect is obtained from a time series analysis of humidity signals which shows the sporadic occurrence of strong, dry downdrafts (under mainly cloudy conditions) which result in positive contributions to the moisture flux. There is evidence that the present observation levels are sometimes within the roughness sub-layer. At around noon and in the early afternoon the Bowen ratio measured using the gradient approach was often larger than the Bowen ratio obtained from directly measured fluxes. This affects the turbulent fluxes derived from the Bowen ratio-energy balance approach. It is suggested that beside the inequality of the transfer efficiencies sampling problems affect the gradient measurements. The average diurnal energy balance is in general agreement with previous summertime observations from the same site. The results indicate that the storage heat flux, obtained as the energy balance residual using directly measured turbulent fluxes, peaks slightly earlier than predicted by the objective hysteresis model. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

The exponential increase of mobile users and the demand for high-speed data services has resulted in significant congestions in cellular backhaul capacity. As a solution to satisfy the traffic requirements of the existing 4G network, the 5G network has emerged as an enabling technology and a fundamental building block of next-generation communication networks. An essential requirement in 5G backhaul networks is their unparalleled capacity to handle heavy traffic between a large number of devices and the core network. Microwave and optic fiber technologies have been considered as feasible solutions for next-generation backhaul networks. However, such technologies are not cost effective to deploy, especially for the backhaul in high-density urban or rugged areas, such as those surrounded by mountains and solid rocks. Additionally, microwave technology faces alarmingly challenging issues, including limited data rates, scarcity of licensed spectrum, advanced interference management, and rough weather conditions (i.e., rain, which is the main weather condition that affects microwave signals the most). The focus of this work is to investigate the feasibility of using free-space-optical (FSO) technology in the 5G cellular backhaul network. FSO is a cost-effective and wide-bandwidth solution as compared to traditional backhaul solutions. However, FSO links are sensitive to atmospheric turbulence-induced fading, path loss, and pointing errors. Increasing the reliability of FSO systems while still exploiting their high data rate communications is a key requirement in the deployment of an FSO backhaul network. Overall, the theoretical models proposed in this work will be shown to enhance FSO link performance. In the experimental direction, we begin by designing an integrated mobile FSO system. To the best of our knowledge, no work in the literature has addressed the atmospheric path loss characterization of mobile FSO channels in a coastal environment. Therefore, we investigate the impact of weather effects in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, over FSO links using outdoor and indoor setups. For the indoor experiments, results are reported based on a glass climate chamber in which we could precisely control the temperature and humidity.

Free-space optics (FSO) is an unlicensed communication technology that uses the free space as a propagation medium to connect two communicating terminal wire- lessly [1]. It is an attractive solution to the last-mile connectivity problems in commu- nication networks, mainly when installing optical fibers is expensive or unavailable. A possible idea to increase the throughput of wireless optical links in free space is to use spatial multiplexing (SMM) [2]. Optical beam distortion due to propagation through a turbulent channel is one of the main factors limiting performance of such a system. Therefore, overcoming the effect of turbulence is a major problem for structured light optical communication in free space. Usually, this problem is approached by using adaptive optics systems and various methods of digital signal processing (DSP) on the receiver side [3–5]. Recently, an idea of optical channel pre-compensation to mit- igate inter-modal crosstalk was proposed [6] and experimentally validated [7]. Such a method, if implemented, will allow the use of entirely passive receivers or, in the case of full-duplex transmission, increase throughput. Here, the performance of a zero-forcing precoding technique to mitigate the effects of an optical turbulence in a Laguerre Gaussian mode based SMM FSO is investigated. Equally, details on a close to reality simulation of the atmospheric turbulence and beam propagation are provided.