Accurate Modeling of the Neutral and Unstable Atmospheric Boundary Layer at Horns Rev using the k-ε Method in FLUENT 6.3

A k-ε code is customized in FLUENT 6.3 to simulate neutral and unstable atmospheric boundary layers (ABL) derived from Monin-Obukhov (MO) similarity theory. The code is tuned until velocity, temperature, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and turbulent dissipation rate (TDR) results maintain the initial theoretical values at upstream and downstream positions in a 2D and 3D domain. After verifying that the code is performing consistently, neutral and unstable initial profiles are constructed from averaged observations of the ABL at Horns Rev and are implemented into the k-ε code. The simulation results display that the Horns Rev velocity profiles are slightly under approximated in the neutral simulation and moderately over approximated in the unstable simulations. Moreover, the simulated TKE profile shows divergence from the initial MO TKE profile as the thermal stability becomes more unstable. A study of the developing 3D dynamics of a turbulent ABL illustrating structures such as vortices and streaks is not reported on, and the results display strictly steady parallel flow.