Simulation of Turbulent Flow over Complex Terrain

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this work is to improve the ability to simulate airflow over complex terrain using large-eddy simulation (LES). The approach is to apply to meteorology some of the recent advances that have been made in the modeling of engineering flows. Specifically, the objectives are (1) to develop and test several approximations for surface boundary conditions and models for characterizing the scales of motion that are unresolved by LES; and (2) to investigate the physics of atmospheric flows by applying the new models to data from several field studies. The approach employs highly parallel computing to achieve a grid resolution of about 10 m in the horizontal and 100 levels in the vertical. Examples of the kinds of complex situations to be investigated include inversion layers within a deep valley, steep orography, and valley winds.