Wind tunnel tests of effects of atmospheric stability on turbulent flow over a three-dimensional hill

This paper presents a wind tunnel study on the turbulent structure of the airflow around a three-dimensional hill model placed in a boundary-layer flow. The effect of atmospheric stability: stable, neutral and unstable on the flow field of the boundary layer is examined. The wind velocity is measured with a three-dimensional laser doppler anemometer (LDA). Measurements analysis includes mean velocity, turbulent velocity, Reynolds stress and turbulence energy profiles around the hill. The main results are as follows: (1) The mean wind velocity does not vary with the stability at the hilltop; it reaches a maximum at the back of the hill, for the unstable case. (2) The turbulent velocity at the back of the hill reaches its peak value at the height of the hilltop. It takes maximum value for the stable boundary layer flow, and become smaller for the neutral flow and the unstable flow. Buoyancy production has little effect on the turbulence energy. (3) A clear peak of -(u'w') over bar /U-H(2) is observed at a height near Z/H = 1. The peak value becomes the largest for the stable case and the smallest for the unstable case. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.