Effects of surface thermal forcing on stratified flow past an isolated obstacle. Cooperative thesis

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:6601606

Reisner, J

Scorer (1968) has pointed out that most experimental studies tend to overemphasize the effects of upstream stratification instead of the equally or perhaps more important effects of the localized heating and cooling of the surface of a three-dimensional (3-D) obstacle. Indeed, as will be shown in the study, surface heating can lead to dramatic changes in the flow such as allowing for the disappearance of the upwind stagnation (defined as surface flow that is either zero or in opposite direction to the incoming flow). To understand how surface heating of mesoscale obstacles, such as the Hawaiian Archipelago, affects the flow, it is important to realize that heating will not only influence the surface flow but, perhaps more importantly, can also modify elevated flow structures such as internal gravity waves, columnar disturbances, and lee vortices. The present study investigates basic aspects of the flow of a density-stratified fluid past three-dimensional obstacles for Froude number approx. O(1) and isolated surface thermal forcing representative of diurnally varying mesoscale flows past mountainous islands such as Hawaii.

• Research Organization: National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6601606
• Report Number(s): PB-93-156776/XAB; NCAR/CT--140
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110*
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
COOLING
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISASTERS
DISTURBANCES
ENERGY TRANSFER
FLUID FLOW
FROUDE NUMBER
GRAVITY WAVES
HAWAII
HEAT TRANSFER
ISLANDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
STAGNATION
STORMS
STRATIFICATION
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TURBULENT FLOW
USA
VARIATIONS
VORTICES