25th Agricultural and Forest Meteorology/12th Air Pollution/4th Urban Environment

Tuesday, 21 May 2002: 1:42 PM
Pressure, vorticity and vortices associated with scalar microfronts in a large-eddy simulation of Canopy Flow
Li Fitzmaurice, University of California, Davis, CA; and R. H. Shaw, K. T. Paw U, and E. G. Patton
Poster PDF (425.4 kB)
Turbulence within and above a vegetation canopy flow is simulated using large-eddy simulation (LES). Pressure is calculated in the LES by solving a Poisson equation. Vorticity is derived from the three-dimensional velocity fields. Vortices are identified based on the pressure and the vorticity. Tilted Scalar microfronts, which features high scalar concentration gradient, are observed in the LES. Where a scalar microfront occurs, a high-pressure region is centered at the intersection of the scalar microfront and the canopy top. In the vicinity of the high-pressure regions, there exist sausage-like elongated low-pressure and high vorticity tubes, which indicate vortices. Most of the tubes tilt downstream with height. The relation between the sausage-like elongated vortices and the scalar microfronts is casual and inconsistent.

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