DRAG COEFFICIENT AND MODELING THE VERTICAL WIND PROFILE IN FORESTS

The difficulties in modeling and determining important parameters, for example, drag coefficient for the flows in forests are themes of many researches that try to rescue the classic approaches and to clarify some aspects present in the literature. Based on this, an analytical one-dimensional model was developed to describe the drag coefficient profile within canopy using average wind speed above the canopy and the leaf area density. The model managed to satisfactorily represent the drag coefficient profile and the comparative analysis indicates that the empirical drag coefficient profile is similar the inferred profile, suggesting that the model can be an alternative to be used in parameterization and understanding of the wind-canopy interactions.