Large eddy simulation of plume dispersion behind an aircraft in the take-off phase

The aim of this paper is to provide an investigation, using large eddy simulation, into plume dispersion behind an aircraft in co-flowing take-off conditions. Validation studies of the computational model were presented by Aloysius and Wrobel (Environ Model Softw 24:929–937, 2009) and a study of the flow and dispersion properties of a double-engine aircraft jetwas presented by Aloysius et al. EEC/SEE/2007/001,EUROCONTROLExperimentalCentre, http://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/gallery/content/public/document/eec/report/2007/ 032_ALAQS_comparison_of_CFD_and_Lagrangian_dispersion_methods.pdf), in which only the engine was modelled. In this paper, the complete geometry of a Boeing 737 is modelled and investigated. The currentwork represents a contribution towards a better understanding of the source dynamics behind an airplane jet engine during the take-off and landing phases. The information provided from these simulations will be useful for future improvements of existing dispersion models

Buoyancy generated turbulence in stably stratified flow with shear

The energy evolution in buoyancy-generated turbulence subjected to shear depends on the gradient Richardson number Ri and the stratification number St, which is a ratio of the time scale of the initial buoyancy fluctuations to the time scale of the mean stratification. During an initial period, the flow state evolves as in the unsheared case. After this period, shear generates fluctuating velocity components for St=0.25, but it depletes the fluctuating vertical velocity component and temperature variance faster than in the unsheared case for St=4. Weak shear causes the kinetic and total energy to decrease faster than in the unsheared case, whereas strong shear adds more energy in comparison with the unsheared case. Energy increased with time in only one case considered (St=0.1 and Ri=0.04). When St\u3e1, the nonlinearity of the flow does not become significant even when Ri is small. Thus, results from rapid distortion theory and direct numerical simulation compare well. In particular, the theory reproduces trends in the energy evolution for St\u3e1

Long-term simulation of the boundary layer flow over the double-ridge site during the Perdigão 2017 field campaign

The Perdigão campaign 2017 was an international field campaign to measure the flow and its diurnal variation in the atmospheric boundary layer over complex terrain. A huge data set of meteorological observations was collected over the double-hill site by means of state-of-the-art meteorological measurement techniques. A focus of the campaign was the interaction of the boundary layer flow with a single wind turbine, which was located on the south-western (SW) ridge top. In this study, a long-term nested large-eddy simulation (LES) of 49-day duration with a maximum horizontal resolution of 200&thinsp;m is used to describe both the general meteorological situation over Spain and Portugal and the local small-scale flow structures over the double hill during the intensive observation period (IOP). The simulations show that frequently observed nocturnal low-level jets (LLJs) from the NE have their origin over the slopes of the elevated plateau between the Portuguese Serra da Estrela and the Spanish Sierra de Gata mountain ranges N and NE of Perdigão and that the diurnal clockwise turning of the wind direction over the double ridge is induced by slope and valley winds under weak synoptic conditions. It is found that, in spite of the long simulation time, modelled and observed wind structures on the ridge tops agree well, while along-valley flow within the valley is underestimated by the model.</p

Airborne observations of the Eyjafjalla volcano ash cloud over Europe during air space closure in April and May 2010

© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseAirborne lidar and in-situ measurements of aerosols and trace gases were performed in volcanic ash plumes over Europe between Southern Germany and Iceland with the Falcon aircraft during the eruption period of the Eyjafjalla1 volcano between 19 April and 18 May 2010. Flight planning and measurement analyses were supported by a refined Meteosat ash product and trajectory model analysis. The volcanic ash plume was observed with lidar directly over the volcano and up to a distance of 2700 km downwind, and up to 120 h plume ages. Aged ash layers were between a few 100 m to 3 km deep, occurred between 1 and 7 km altitude, and were typically 100 to 300 km wide. Particles collected by impactors had diameters up to 20 μm diameter, with size and age dependent composition. Ash mass concentrations were derived from optical particle spectrometers for a particle density of 2.6 g cm-3 and various values of the refractive index (RI, real part: 1.59; 3 values for the imaginary part: 0, 0.004 and 0.008). The mass concentrations, effective diameters and related optical properties were compared with ground-based lidar observations. Theoretical considerations of particle sedimentation constrain the particle diameters to those obtained for the lower RI values. The ash mass concentration results have an uncertainty of a factor of two. The maximum ash mass concentration encountered during the 17 flights with 34 ash plume penetrations was below 1 mg m-3. The Falcon flew in ash clouds up to about 0.8 mg m-3 for a few minutes and in an ash cloud with approximately 0.2 mg -3 mean-concentration for about one hour without engine damage. The ash plumes were rather dry and correlated with considerable CO and SO2 increases and O3 decreases. To first order, ash concentration and SO2 mixing ratio in the plumes decreased by a factor of two within less than a day. In fresh plumes, the SO2 and CO concentration increases were correlated with the ash mass concentration. The ash plumes were often visible slantwise as faint dark layers, even for concentrations below 0.1 mg m-3. The large abundance of volatile Aitken mode particles suggests previous nucleation of sulfuric acid droplets. The effective diameters range between 0.2 and 3 μm with considerable surface and volume contributions from the Aitken and coarse mode aerosol, respectively. The distal ash mass flux on 2 May was of the order of 500 (240-1600) kgs -1. The volcano induced about 10 (2.5-50) Tg of distal ash mass and about 3 (0.6-23) Tg of SO2 during the whole eruption period. The results of the Falcon flights were used to support the responsible agencies in their decisions concerning air traffic in the presence of volcanic ash.Peer reviewe