Yuan Renmin

A laboratory study of the turbulent velocity characteristics in the convective boundary layer

Based on the measurement of the velocity field in the convective boundary layer (CBL) in a convection water tank with the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique, this paper studies the characteristics of the CBL turbulent velocity in a modified convection tank. The experiment results show that the velocity distribution in the mixed layer clearly possesses the characteristics of the CBL thermals, and the turbulent eddies can be seen obviously. The comparison of the vertical distribution of the turbulent velocity variables indicates that the modeling in the new tank is better than in the old one. The experiment data show that the thermal’s motion in the entrainment zone sometimes fluctuates obviously due to the intermittence of turbulence. Analyses show that this fluctuation can influence the agreement of the measurement data with the parameterization scheme, in which the convective Richardson number is used to characterize the entrainment zone depth. The normalized square velocitywi2/w*2 at the top of the mixed layer seems to be time-dependent, and has a decreasing trend during the experiments. This implies that the vertical turbulent velocity at the top of the mixed layer may not be proportional to the convective velocity (w*).

A laboratory modeling of the velocity field in the convective boundary layer with the particle image velocimetry technique

Based on the research of the convective boundary layer (CBL) temperature field in a convective tank, this paper studies the characteristics of the CBL velocity field in the convective tank. Aluminium powder (400 orders) is used as a tracer particle in the application of the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. The experiment demonstrates: the velocity distribution in the mixed layer clearly possesses the characteristics of CBL thermals; the velocity distribution in the top zone of the mixed layer shows entrainment layer characteristics; the vertical distribution of turbulent characteristic variables is reasonable, which is similar to field observations and other tank results; the error analysis demonstrates the validity of aluminium powder, which implies the reliability of the results.

Parameterization for the depth of the entrainment zone above the convectively mixed layer

It has been noted that when the convective Richardson numberRi* is used to characterize the depth of the entrainment zone, various parameterization schemes can be obtained. This situation is often attributed to the invalidity of parcel theory. However, evidence shows that the convective Richardson numberRi* might be an improper characteristic scaling parameter for the entrainment process. An attempt to use an innovative parameter to parameterize the entrainment-zone thickness has been made in this paper. Based on the examination of the data of water-tank experiments and atmospheric measurements, it is found that the total lapse rate of potential temperature across the entrainment zone is proportional to that of the capping inversion layer. Inserting this relationship into the so-called parcel theory, it thus gives a new parameterization scheme for the depth of the entrainment zone. This scheme includes the lapse rate of the capping inversion layer that plays an important role in the entrainment process. Its physical representation is reasonable. The new scheme gives a better ordering of the data measured in both water-tank and atmosphere as compared with the traditional method usingRi*. These indicate that the parcel theory can describe the entrainment process suitably and that the new parameter is better thanRi*.