A wind tunnel study of dense gas dispersion in a stable boundary layer over a rough surface

Robins, Alan, Castro, Ian, Hayden, Paul, Steggel, Nathan, Contini, Daniel, Heist, David and Taylor, T. John (2001) A wind tunnel study of dense gas dispersion in a stable boundary layer over a rough surface. Atmospheric Environment, 35 (13), 2253-2263. (doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(01)00073-5).

Abstract

Measurements of the vertical entrainment velocity into two-dimensional dense gas plumes over fully rough surfaces were carried out as part of a co-operative research programme with wind tunnel facilities in the USA. This paper presents results obtained for stable boundary layer conditions in the EnFlo wind tunnel at the University of Surrey; a companion paper treats the neutral boundary layer case. Mean velocity and temperature, turbulent normal and shear tresses, temperature fluctuations and heat fluxes were measured and used to demonstrate that a moderately stable atmospheric boundary layer had been successfully simulated in the tunnel. Entrainment velocities, WE, were then deduced from the streamwise development of the concentration field, non-dimensionalised with respect to the friction velocity in the undisturbed flow, u*, and correlated with the plume Richardson number, Ri*. Higher non-dimensional entrainment speeds, WE/u*, were observed for Ri*>5 in the stable boundary layer than in the neutral boundary layer, the difference growing with increasing Richardson number. Emission velocity ratios, W0/u*, were however larger in the stable experiments, and exceeded one at about Ri*=18. Entrainment in the stable boundary layer appeared therefore to be more sensitive to emission velocity ratio than in the neutral case. Entrainment behaviour for Ri*?5 followed that found in the neutral boundary layer. In this regime, use of the neutral boundary layer entrainment speed correlation is unlikely to lead to the over-prediction of plume dilution rates in moderately stable boundary layers.

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