Estimating the filtering of turbulence properties by finite-sized particles using analytical energy spectra

Finite-sized neutrally buoyant particles suspended in a turbulent flow do not typically follow the fluid motion, whereas sufficiently small neutrally buoyant particles, known as tracers, do. Turbulence properties probed by the two types of particles, thus, differ primarily due to spatial filtering, whereby scales of motion in the energy spectrum smaller than the particle diameter D are suppressed, whereas those larger are retained. In this study, this filtering effect is quantified for flows with Reynolds numbers in the range Re ~ 32–2000 using a model of isotropic and homogeneous turbulence based on analytical wavenumber and Lagrangian frequency energy spectra. The coefficients scaling these spectra are estimated by comparing the dissipation rate, amplitude of the frequency spectrum, and acceleration variance for the fluid motion, as well as the acceleration and velocity variances of the particle motion, with laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. The model reproduces scalings for the acceleration variances of both the fluid and the particles at high Reynolds number. The model is then used to predict the ratios of the velocity variance, acceleration variance, and the dissipation rate obtained from the particles to those of the flow. These ratios depart from 1 as D increases (as expected), but the fluid velocity variance is much less severely underestimated by the particle motion than the acceleration variance and dissipation rate, for a given D and Re. These results allow delimiting more systematically the conditions under which finite-sized neutrally buoyant particles could be as useful to probe turbulent flows as tracer particles in laboratory experiments

Effects of recent minimum temperature and water deficit increases on Pinus pinaster radial growth and wood density in southern Portugal

Western Iberia has recently shown increasing frequency of drought conditions coupled with heatwave events, leading to exacerbated limiting climatic conditions for plant growth. It is not clear to what extent wood growth and density of agroforestry species have suffered from such changes or recent extreme climate events. To address this question, tree-ring width and density chronologies were built for a Pinus pinaster stand in southern Portugal and correlated with climate variables, including the minimum, mean and maximum temperatures and the number of cold days. Monthly and maximum daily precipitations were also analyzed as well as dry spells. The drought effect was assessed using the standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration (SPEI) multi-scalar drought index, between 1 to 24-months. The climate-growth/density relationships were evaluated for the period 1958-2011. We show that both wood radial growth and density highly benefit from the strong decay of cold days and the increase of minimum temperature. Yet the benefits are hindered by long-term water deficit, which results in different levels of impact on wood radial growth and density. Despite of the intensification of long-term water deficit, tree-ring width appears to benefit from the minimum temperature increase, whereas the effects of long-term droughts significantly prevail on tree-ring density. Our results further highlight the dependency of the species on deep water sources after the juvenile stage. The impact of climate changes on longterm droughts and their repercussion on the shallow groundwater table and P. pinaster’s vulnerability are also discussed. This work provides relevant information for forest management in the semi-arid area of the Alentejo region of Portugal. It should ease the elaboration of mitigation strategies to assure P. pinaster’s production capacity and quality in response to more arid conditions in the near future in the regioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dispersion of finite-size particles probing inhomogeneous and anisotropic turbulence

A series of 8 laboratory experiments was used to investigate the dynamics of a few almost neutrally-buoyant finite-size particles in the entire volume of a rectangular tank open to air and filled with water. Stirring was achieved by a cylinder executing a two-dimensional periodic Lissajoux figure. The rate and direction of stirring by the cylinder was varied. The particle motions were analyzed using a tracking method developed for the experimental design. The Reynolds number associated with the large-scale stirring motion was in a turbulent range of [5,693-11,649] across all experiments. The absence of stirring in the direction of the cylinder axis, the constant interference of the cylinder with the eddies and the presence of walls and the free-surface resulted in a flow that was both inhomogeneous and anisotropic as recorded by the particle motion. Despite these unusual conditions, the single-particle dispersion across all experiments could be seen to follow a ballistic regime until about two-fifths of the particle Lagrangian velocity auto-correlation time T_L. It was followed by a brief diffusive regime between T_L and 2.5 T_L, after which the presence of the boundaries prevented further dispersion. Such evolution is consistent with classic predictions for fluid tracer dispersion in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Particle-pair dispersion was more complex. Both the fixed time-averaged and length-scale-dependent particle-pair dispersion rates averaged across pairs showed the ballistic dispersion regime, whereas the subsequent diffusive regime was better borne out by the length-scale-dependent particle-pair dispersion. A super-diffusive Richardson regime was not unmistakably detected. Substantial variability was however found across the different pairs of particles, which was linked to differences in the decorrelation time of the velocity difference as a result of the inhomogeneity of the turbulence. For short initial separations, some particle pairs had a better separation of the time scales delimiting the ballistic and diffusive regimes and showed hints of a brief Richardson regime

The impact of vent geometry on the growth of lava domes

International audienceThick lava flows that are a feature of many volcanic fields on the Earth and Venus vary from sheet-like to nearly perfect axisymmetric domes. Here, we investigate how these geometrical characteristics depend on the shape of the feeder vent. We study the gravitational spreading of viscous lava erupting from elliptical vents onto a flat surface using 3-D numerical models. The aspect ratio of the vent, defined to be the major to minor axes ratio, varies between 1 and 25. In the limit of an aspect ratio of one, the vent is circular and spreading is axisymmetric. In the limit where the ratio is large, the vent behaves as a fissure. The numerical models rely on an isoviscous lava rheology and a constant volumetric eruption rate. In all cases, the initial phase of the dome's evolution is in a lava-discharge dominated regime such that spreading is insignificant and the height of the dome increases at a constant rate over the vent area. For vent aspect ratios greater than five, three successive regimes of spreading are identified: 2-D spreading in the direction perpendicular to the major axis of the vent, a transient phase such that the dome shape evolves towards that of a circular dome and a late axisymmetric spreading phase that does not depend on the vent shape. These regimes are delimited by the times required for the flow thickness above the vent to reach a given height and for the flow to spread axisymmetrically up to a length equal to the semi-major axis of the vent. Numerical results for the flow height and runout length tend towards the similarity solutions in the 2-D and axisymmetric regimes. Two main implications for highly viscous (rhyolitic) fissure eruptions can be drawn. First, the fissure length determines the flow regimes. The longer the vent fissure length, the longer the early lava discharge regime and 2-D spreading perpendicular to the length of the fissure. Second, the aspect ratio of fissure-fed lava flows can be used as an indicator of the fissure length and the duration of lava discharge. The ellipticity of some terrestrial fissure-fed flows provides evidence for viscous gravity-driven spreading terminated before the onset of the axisymmetric regime. On the other hand, the circular domes on Venus appear to be the result of fissure-fed eruptions sustained enough for the spreading to reach the axisymmetric regime. We propose relationships providing estimates of the fissure length and the duration of lava discharge based on fossil dome dimensions

All scales must be considered to understand rifts

SCOPUS: no.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Lessons from the autumn 2014 flash floods in the city of Nîmes and its neighborhood (France): behavior of several mitigation dams and hydrological analysis

The Languedoc area, in Southern France, is prone to autumnal flash floods which are characteristic of the Mediterranean climate. To cope with this threat, the local authorities have chosen to build several dams on the main dangerous rivers of the area. We have focused on the flood mitigation facilities of two operators: the City of Nîmes and the Gardons Rivers Managing authority. After the catastrophic flash flood of October 1988, the city of Nîmes built flood mitigation dams on many of its high-risk streams. These flood barriers worked several times during the intense rainfalls of autumn 2014. The on-site conclusions drawn from these floods and the computation carried out with hydrological models confirmed how well the dams functioned. In 2010, the Gardons Rivers Managing authority built a flood mitigation dam on the Esquielle River to protect the village of Saint-Geniès-de-Malgoirès. The spillway of this dam worked for the first time in the autumn of 2014. We analyzed one of the major floods monitored on that occasion at its outlet. The goals of this study are: (i) to evaluate dams efficiency and (ii) to test, on a catchment which was not used for its calibration, the AIGA flash flood warning method, which was developed by IRSTEA