Neste trabalho, buscou-se investigar a aplicação de uma modelagem RANS, com a utilização do modelo de turbulência das Tensões de Reynolds (RSTM), na modelagem do escoamento de gás no interior de ciclones, especialmente na simulação do movimento periódico do vórtice, conhecido como Precessing Vortex Core (PVC), com apoio da Fluidodinâmica Computacional. Utilizou-se o pacote de CFD de código aberto OpenFOAM, e as simulações foram realizadas em regime transiente. Dois modelos RSTM foram testados, o modelo LRR com os valores padrões para as constantes e uma modificação das constantes do termo de redistribuição. Compararam-se os resultados obtidos com dados da literatura e verificou-se que ambos os modelos representaram o campo médio de velocidade. No entanto, somente o modelo LRR conseguiu reproduzir o campo de flutuações de velocidade. Detectou-se o movimento de precessão do vórtice, que pode ser visualizado através de imagens sequenciais do escoamento, e uma frequência característica do movimento pode ser calculada através do Espectro de potência. / The flow field of a gas cyclone was simulated with a RANS model using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the Precession of the Vortex Core (PVC) was investigated. The CFD simulations were carried out using the open source code OpenFOAM and the simulations were performed in a transient regime. Two Reynolds Stress Turbulence Models (RSTM) were investigated - the LRR model with standard constants and another with modified constants in the pressure-strain term. The results obtained by the models were compared with values of mean velocity taken from the literature and predictions were satisfactory. However, only the LRR model with standard constants predicted with precision the fluctuation velocity field. The precessing vortex was detected and illustrated by the flow field visualization and a characteristic frequency was calculated by Power Spectrum Density.

Les cyclones tropicaux, gigantesques machines thermiques redistribuent l'énergie entre les régions chaude et froide du globe. Cette énergie (chaleur latente) provient surtout des processus de condensation. La connaissance de la chaleur latente devrait améliorer la prévision de l'évolution de ses systèmes dévastateurs détectables par satellite. TRMM lancé en 1997, permet la restitution des contenus en hydrométéores grâce à des mesures couplées radar/radiomètre (PR/TMI). Cette thèse porte sur la restitution de la chaleur latente. On a donc développé un algorithme original de type bayésien utilisant des bases de données, construites à partir des mesures du PR. Cette méthode, appliquée au cyclone Bret (1999) a été validée par comparaison avec des résultats de mesures aéroportées et sol. On reproduit assez bien sur ce cas une structure énergétique propre à différents stade de son évolution. Une étude statistique pourrait ainsi permettre un diagnostic de l'évolution.

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Recent studies have found that equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) variability may be influencing tropical Indian Ocean climate (Kucharski 2009, Wang 2009). Due to the economic and social impact of tropical cyclones, it is important to investigate how an Atlantic-Indian Ocean connection may be affecting tropical cyclone behavior in the southern Indian Ocean. In this study, the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrAC) tropical cyclone database is used to derive metrics of tropical cyclone behavior, which are then compared with indices of tropical Atlantic SST variability representing Atlantic Niño, and Benguela Niño events. Changes in tropical Atlantic SSTs are found to coincide with significant differences in tropical cyclone activity for portions of the southern Indian Ocean. In addition, for these same regions, tropical Atlantic SST variability is associated with changes in large-scale atmospheric conditions, including steering flow, low level vorticity, and humidity, typically associated with tropical cyclogenesis, and tropical cyclone track. The changes in steering flow related to both indices of Atlantic SST anomaly are reproduced by an atmospheric model. The changes in steering flow are also found to be linked to changes in TC translational velocity, and TC tracking. These findings indicate a possible link between tropical Atlantic conditions and cyclone activity in the Indian Ocean mediated through a teleconnection between tropical Atlantic SSTs and large scale atmospheric conditions over the southern Indian Ocean. The teleconnection related to the Benguela Niño region of SST variability was found to consist of a Rossby wave initiated off the coast of South America, and propagating into the Indian Ocean, thereby influencing several atmospheric variables, including steering flow. The teleconnection related to the Atlantic Niño region of SST variability was not well defined, although there was some evidence of a Walker circulation anomaly extending from the equatorial Atlantic over the continent of Africa, and influencing SIO steering flow. / Graduation date: 2012

Annually, tropical cyclones do tremendous damage and are agents of long-term coastal change. To test this idea of different tropical cyclones delivering consistent coastal change, a landform with such evolution is needed. One such landform is a spit. What contributions do tropical cyclones give toward the evolution of a spit, and do tropical cyclones give the same kinds of impacts? To determine if tropical cyclones have similar impacts, shoreline and volumetric change from four storms impacting Bolivar Peninsula are considered. Being a southwest-trended spit at a length of 33.5 kilometers, storm impacts are measured in the form of one dimensional shoreline and two dimensional volumetric change. These impacts are abstracted into shoreline change and volumetric change patterns. These patterns are identified and compared for differences between each storm and similarity among all storms. Results indicate that shoreline accretionary zones vary alongshore. Results from Hurricane Ike indicate an accretionary zone ten kilometers from the distal end. Shoreline change patterns for Hurricane Rita show an unstable accretionary zone at four kilometers from the distal end. Results for Tropical Storm Fay indicate an unstable accretionary zone that begins at the distal end and continues to the middle of the spit. In terms of similarity for shoreline change, all patterns from storms demonstrated erosion near Rollover Fish Pass. One dimensional volumetric change patterns were entirely erosive for Hurricanes Rita and Ike, and Tropical Storm Fay had by small zones of accretion near the distal portion of the spit. Tropical Storm Josephine demonstrated an accretion zone between the middle and distal portion of the spit. Results from two dimensional volumetric change patterns suggest a threshold for inland penetration. Tropical Storm Fay showed a ten to twenty meter wide pattern of erosion around five kilometers from the distal end and near the proximal end of the spit, and Hurricane Rita demonstrated a twenty meter wide pattern of erosion near the distal end. Hurricane Ike had erosive penetration of up to 200 meters around fifteen kilometers from the distal end. Results suggest that certain storms reinforce the standard spit growth model, and others work against it.

La transition entre la turbulence isotrope 3D et la turbulence anisotrope quasi-2D sous l'effet d'une rotation d'ensemble est étudiée expérimentalement. Un écoulement turbulent est généré par la translation d'une grille dans une cuve remplie d'eau en rotation, et un système de vélocimétrie par images de particules est utilisé pour mesurer les champs de vitesse instantanés dans un plan perpendiculaire à l'axe de rotation. Nous décrivons dans un premier temps les différents régimes qui caractérisent la décroissance de la turbulence : une loi approximativement autosimilaire est présente pour des temps plus petits que le temps d'Ekman, tandis qu'une décroissance exponentielle de l'énergie prend place à temps long. Les exposants de déclin mesurés expérimentalement sont en assez bon accord avec les valeurs prédites par un modèle phénoménologique, dans lequel les effets de la rotation et du confinement sont pris en compte. Même à très faible vitesse, la rotation a une grande influence sur la loi de déclin de l'énergie en faisant que l'échelle intégrale verticale croît beaucoup plus rapidement à travers la propagation d'ondes d'inertie. Nous décrivons, par la suite, l'influence de la rotation sur les transferts d'énergie à travers les échelles. Le coefficient d'asymétrie des dérivées de vitesse décroît comme le nombre de Rossby microscopique, reflétant l'inhibition des transferts d'énergie par la rotation d'ensemble. Enfin nous présentons des résultats nouveaux concernant l'asymétrie cyclone-anticyclone qui caractérise les écoulements en milieu tournant. L'analyse temporelle de cette asymétrie a montré une croissance en loi de puissance tant que le confinement n'est pas présent.

Coal preparation plants are required in some cases to produce a high-grade product using a low specific gravity cut-point. For these situations, a second higher gravity separation would be desirable to generate a mid-grade product that can be utilized for electricity generation thereby maximizing coal recovery. A study was conducted to evaluate the potential of achieving efficient separations at two different density cut-points in a single stage using a three-product dense medium cyclone. Variations in density cut-point and process efficiency values were quantified as a function of the feed medium density, feed medium-to-coal ratio, and feed pressure using a three-level experimental design program. Results indicate the ability to effectively treat coal over a particle size range from 6mm to 0.15mm while achieving both low- and high-density cut-points up to 1.95 relative density. Ash content decreased from 27.98% in the feed to an average of 7.77% in the clean coal product and 25.76% in the middlings product while sulfur content was reduced from 3.87 to 2.83% in the clean coal product. The overall combustible recovery was maintained above 90% while producing clean coal products with ash and total sulfur content as low as 5.85 and 2.68%, respectively. Organic efficiency values were consistently about 95% and probable error values were in the range of 0.03 to 0.05, which indicates the ability to provide a separation performance equivalent to or better than traditional coal cleaning technologies.

The direct and indirect effects of aerosols on the hurricane ‘Katrina’ have been investigated using the WRF model with a two-moment bulk microphysical scheme and modified Goddard shortwave radiation scheme. Simulations of the hurricane ‘Katrina’ are conducted under the three aerosol scenarios: 1) the clean case with an aerosol number concentration of 200 cm-1, 2) the polluted case with a number concentration of 1000 cm-1, and 3) the aerosol radiative effects (AR) case with same aerosol concentration as polluted case but with a modified shortwave radiation scheme. The polluted and AR cases have much larger amounts of cloud water and water vapor in troposphere, and the increased cloud water can freeze to produce ice water paths. A tropical cyclone in dirty and dusty air has active rainbands outside the eyewall due to aerosol indirect effects. The aerosol direct effect can lead to the suppressing of convection and weakening of updraft intensity by warming the troposphere and cooling the surface temperature. However, these thermal changes in atmosphere are concerned with the enhanced amounts of cloud hydrometeors and modification of downdraft and corresponding the low level winds in rainband regions. Thus, the AR case can produce the enhanced precipitation even in the weakest hurricane. When comparing the model performance between aerosol indirect and direct effect by ensemble experiments, the adjustment time of the circulation due to modification of the aerosol radiative forcing by aerosol layers may take a longer time than the hurricane lifetime, and the results from the simulated hurricane show that it is more sensitive to aerosol indirect effects which are related to the cloud microphysics process changes. From this aerosol study, we can suggest that aerosols can influence the cloudiness, precipitation, and intensity of hurricanes significantly, and there may be different results in the meso-scale convective clouds cases. The hurricane system is a large and complex convective system with enormous heating energy and moistures. Moreover, relationships between various hydrometeors in hurricane systems are difficult to isolate and thus, it needs further study with more realistic cloud microphysical processes, aerosol distributions, and parameterizations.

Towards advancing the indices of hurricane energetics that are associated with potential damage, we develop a new methodology for calculating integrated kinetic energy (IKE) climatology. A simple, observation and dynamical - based radial wind speed model is used with the Extended Best Track Data Set to calculate IKE for North Atlantic Hurricanes from 1988 to 2008. The method is evaluated against previous methods of tropical cyclone intensity analysis, and the results are compared to traditional indices in terms of characterizing storm energetics and relating to storm surge. It is shown that the traditional indices are inaccurate measurements of hurricane energetics, and the assumptions that they are based on are not valid. Furthermore, in analyzing storm surge, it is possible that tropical cyclone damage is more strongly correlated with IKE rather than maximum wind speed.

The title of this thesis borrows the notion of ‘wounded space’ from anthropologist and historian Deborah Bird Rose. The work’s central aspiration is to initiate a conversation about the power and fate of physical settings of traumatic events, and, in particular, about the cultural work such places can be seen to perform in the contemporary Western world. My focus is on ‘traumascapes’ places that are traditionally described and understood as haunted. I use the notion of traumascapes as a means of historicising haunting and haunted places and of recognising them as an integral part of our landscapes and lived sociality. (For complete abstract open document)