Spatiotemporal Variability of Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budgets in the Convective Boundary Layer over Both Simple and Complex Terrain
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California
- Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico
The assumption of sub-grid scale (SGS) horizontal homogeneity within a model grid cell, which forms the basis of SGS turbulence closures used by mesoscale models, becomes increasingly tenuous as grid spacing is reduced to a few kilometers or less, such as in many emerging high-resolution applications. Herein, we use the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) budget equation to study the spatio-temporal variability in two types of terrain—complex (Columbia Basin Wind Energy Study [CBWES] site, north-eastern Oregon) and flat (ScaledWind Farm Technologies [SWiFT] site, west Texas) using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. In each case six-nested domains (three domains each for mesoscale and large-eddy simulation [LES]) are used to downscale the horizontal grid spacing from 10 km to 10 m using the WRF model framework. The model output was used to calculate the values of the TKE budget terms in vertical and horizontal planes as well as the averages of grid cells contained in the four quadrants (a quarter area) of the LES domain. The budget terms calculated along the planes and the mean profile of budget terms show larger spatial variability at CBWES site than at the SWiFT site. The contribution of the horizontal derivative of the shear production term to the total production shear was found to be 45% and 15% of the total shear, at the CBWES and SWiFT sites, respectively, indicating that the horizontal derivatives applied in the budget equation should not be ignored in mesoscale model parameterizations, especially for cases with complex terrain with <10 km scale.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1416688
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-125867; WW0600000
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, Vol. 56, Issue 12; ISSN 1558-8424
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Daytime Temporal Variation of Surface-Layer Parameters and Turbulence Kinetic Energy Budget in Topographically Complex Terrain Around Umiam, India
|
journal | April 2019 |
Large-eddy simulation sensitivities to variations of configuration and forcing parameters in canonical boundary-layer flows for wind energy applications
|
journal | January 2018 |
Large-Eddy Simulation Sensitivities to Variations of Configuration and Forcing Parameters in Canonical Boundary-Layer Flows for Wind Energy Applications
|
journal | August 2017 |
Similar Records
Efficacy of the Cell Perturbation Method in Large-Eddy Simulations of Boundary Layer Flow over Complex Terrain
Evaluation of the Impact of Horizontal Grid Spacing in Terra Incognita on Coupled Mesoscale–Microscale Simulations Using the WRF Framework