Instituto Universitario de

Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Modelling of atmospheric boundary layer:

Generation of shear profile in wind tunnel
Tee Seong Yeow
Supervisor: Alvaro Cuerva

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,

ETSI Aeronáuticos
Instituto Universitario Ignacio Da Riva
Spain
teeseong.yeow@upm.es 1/20
Instituto Universitario de
Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Wind tunnel set-up for ABL simulation

Measuring system

Turbulence Roughness elements Scaled model

generators
i.e. spires

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Instituto Universitario de
Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Index
1. Atmospheric Boundary Layer
• Smooth-flat Wall Boundary Layer
• Rough Wall Boundary Layer
• Roughness

2. Friction Velocity and Roughness Length Determination

• Methods
• Scaling Factors (Large Scales)

3. Conclusions

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Instituto Universitario de
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Atmospheric Boundary Layer

• described by the set of equations including Navier-Stokes equations,
conservation of mass, conservation of energy, ideal gas law and conservation of
humidity equation.
• impossible to solve due to non-linearity, the need to consider large number of
initial and boundary conditions and limited computational resources.
• simplification using ensemble average equations and averaging rules (RANS)
ũi(x,t) = Ui(x,t) + ui(x,t)
instantenous mean velocity
velocity velocity fluctuation

• for wind tunnel applications - adapting some assumptions:

• assuming average temperature, T = constant
• dry air
• incompressibility (density, ρ = constant)
∂U ∂V ∂Ui
• homogeneity in x- and y- direction, stationary flow: = =0 ; =0
∂x ∂y ∂t
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Instituto Universitario de
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Smooth-flat Wall Boundary Layer

• classic logarithmic profile of the longitudinal wind component, U in terms
of non-dimensional (+) variables, characteristic length, l+= ν/u* (Schlichting,
2000).
u*
U ( z+ ) = ln( z+ ) + Bu*
κ

• κ : von Karman constant (typically taken as 0.4)

• B : integration constant (taken as 5.1) (exp. values range: 5 - 5.5)
• u* : friction velocity
( )
1/ 2
: (τ/ρ)1/2 ≅ −uw
(τ = viscous stresses close to the wall, ρ = fluid density
u,w : velocity fluctuation in the x and z direction)
•ν : kinematic viscosity

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Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Rough Wall Boundary Layer

u* u* z ɶ
U ( z+ ) = ln ( z+ ) + Bh (h+ )u* U ( z+ ) = ln   + B (h+ )u*
κ κ h

• h : equivalent sand grain roughness height

• Bh : function of the non-dimensional roughness height
• Bɶ : a function of roughness height in the form of

1
Bɶ (h+ ) = ln(h+ ) + Bh (h+ )
κ
• h+ : non-dimensional equivalent sand grain roughness height
(Schlichting, 1936)
h+ = h/ l+

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Rough Wall Boundary Layer

18
U+
u* z  16 Log region
U (z) = ln  
κ
14
z
 0 12
10
• z0 : the hydrodynamic roughness length
8
(aerodynamic roughness length) 6

( )
4
z0 = h exp −κ Bɶ 2
0
z0+,min 100 101 102
z+
Smooth wall Fully rough flow
z0,min = exp(–κB) ν/u* = 0.14ν/u* Bɶ = 8.5 ; z0 = 0.033h
(Jimenez, 2004) (Ligrani & Moffat, 1986)

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Viscous
sub-layer Buffer layer Log law
18 • z+ = zu*/ν
U+
16
⇒ a Reynolds number
14
based on the friction
12
velocity and the height
10
from the wall.
8
6
4
• low z+ represents a
2 linear velocity profile
0
100 5 101 40 102 103 • higher z+ represents the
z+
logarithmic law
Velocity distribution above a smooth surface, from laminar flow
to fully turbulent flow (viscous sub-layer to log law region).
(Schlichting, 2000 and Garratt, 1992)

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Viscous Buffer
sub-layer layer Log law

U+
25
h+= 2.3 • Increasing roughness
3.2 height lowers the wind
9.2
16 speed in the log region.
20
23
26
u*
∆U ( z+ ) = ln ( h+ ) + B − Bɶ 
15
κ
10

U+=z+
B ≈ 5.1 (smooth surfaces)
5 Log-law Bɶ ≈ 8.5 (fully rough flow with
0 sand grain roughness)
z0 + z0 + 100 101 102 103 104
z+ (Krogstad & Antonia, 1999)
Mean velocity profile for different roughness heights
z0+(h+) compared to logarithmic profile (Schultz and Flack, 2007)

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Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

5
z0 + 10

104

103

102 ν  ∆U 
z0 = exp  − Bκ + κ
u*  u* 
101
Laboratory Atmosphere
100

10-1
100 101 102 103 104 105 106
h+

Non-dimensional hydrodynamic roughness length, z0+= z0u*/ν, as

a function of the roughness Reynolds number, h+= hu*/ν for
different types of roughness elements in the wind tunnel and in
the atmosphere (data from Raupach et al., 1991).

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Roughness element height estimation for wind tunnel

modelling
z0/h Cylinders (realistic d values)
• relation between hydrodynamic Cylinders (d = 0)
0.1 Cubes
roughness length, z0, roughness
height, h and roughness density, λ Spheres
VKI (measured)
is given by λmax
z0 / h = 0.5λ +200%
(Dyrbye & Hansen, 1996) -200%
0.01
•roughness density, λ for a +200%
homogenous distribution
-200% 3D Elements
z0
dC
= 0.5λ
h
λ =SS SP SG
λ= P 0.001
G 0.01 0.1
SP λ
hC Normalized roughness length z0/h as a function of roughness
density, λ for three dimensional elements. Measured values of z0/h
from VKI is shown along with uncertainty levels due to indirect
SG method of determining z0

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Roughness element height estimation for wind tunnel

modelling
• a sufficient length of roughness fetch in the upwind is needed. (≈ 1000h,
Counehan, 1971)
• λmax ≈ 0.15
• roughness geometry influences greatly the value of λmax (Raupach et al.,
1991).
• beyond the maximum value, z0/h decreases with further increase of λ,
which is attributed to the mutual sheltering of roughness elements
(Wooding, 1973)

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Friction Velocity and Roughness Length

Determination

• Approximation method: fitting of velocity profile using Hama’s law

fits and log-power fits (Iyengar & Farell, 2001)
• possibility of several sets of value fits can give differences up
to a factor of 2 in rough wall cases
• several sets of values z0 and u* giving comparable fits to the
same velocity profile

• Direct measurements: Reynolds stress, −uw.ρ( ) and balance

measurements of τ at the wall
• errors are mainly due to measurement systems, i.e. X-wire
probe give up to 15% errors

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Scaling factor effects (Large scales)

• Influence the minimum reproducibility of hydrodynamic roughness

length, z0 in wind tunnel
• In the case of Alaiz: Scale, S ≈ 1:5000
• Wind tunnel : z0,min = 0.14ν/u*= 0.0042mm (ν = 1.5×10–5 m2/s,
u* ≈ 0.5 m/s )
• Real terrain : z0,min(real) = 0.14Sν/u*=21mm

Terrain type Terrain Model

Type I: z0 (mm) 10 0.002

Type II: z0 (mm) 50 0.01

(Dyrbye & Hansen, 1996)

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Scaling factor effects (Large scales)

• simple considerations from results of experiments on flat terrain can be

extracted.
• for smooth wall: viscous region extends to non-dimensional heights,
z+ ∈ [0,≈40...100] (Durbin & Pettersson Reif, 2001 and Jimenez, 2004)

• for complex terrain: roughness elements shifts the velocity profile

downwards

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Scaling factor effects (Large scales)

z
z H=100m
Log region
zmin,real
Non-log
region
0.1H=10m

Model Real terrain

 40   40 
zmin,WT =  ν u* zmin,real =   Sν u* Height S=1:5000 S=1:10000
100  100  100m 0.02m 0.01m
0.6  3
=   mm =  m 10m 0.002m 0.001m
 15  75

teeseong.yeow@upm.es 16/17
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Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Conclusions
• a preliminary study to conduct wind tunnel modelling of complex terrain at large
scales (≈5000)
• generation of required log profile for the mean wind profile, z+ ∈ [0,≈40…100]
• hydrodynamic roughness length, z0 and roughness geometry for large scale case

• large scaling factor might extend the viscous

region in the wind tunnel to corresponding to
heights of interest in the real terrain (i.e. hub
height)
 40 
zmin ,real =   Sν u*
100 
• there is a limitation on the minimum
reproducible value of z0,real in the wind tunnel
z0,(real) = 0.14Sν/u*

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Acknowledgement
This work has been carried out with funding from the EU FP7-PEOPLE
program, under WAUDIT Marie-Curie Initial Training &etwork.

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Instituto Universitario de
Microgravedad Ignacio da Riva

Thank you…
Questions???

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