On the similarities of the engineering and atmospheric boundary layers

In this study, a comparison of different turbulent flow parameters is performed between a spatially-developing boundary layer (SDBL) and the corresponding atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Numerical data for the SDBL have been obtained by performing Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) at different Reynolds numbers and stream-wise pressure gradients. Turbulent inflow conditions have been generated by means of the dynamic multi-scale approach (Araya et al. 2011). On the other hand, data for the ABL are available for the comparison. The idea is to test and validate the extension of the engineering scaling laws to the real ABL. Those scaling laws have been developed by carrying out a similarity analysis over the governing equations of the flow (George & Castillo 1997, Wang & Castillo 2003, Notaro 2011).