Ebook: The Atmospheric Boundary Layer for Engineers

While I was participating in the IUTAM Symposium on Structure of Turbulence and Drag Reduction in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1989, I was approached by Prof. Dr. Themistocles Dracos to give a course oflectures on the Atmospheric Boundary Layer during my sabbatical leave at Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zurich - Hoenggerberg in 1991. His reason for the suggestion was the growing interest in the environment and its dynamics created by flow in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer. I have been teaching boundary layer to undergraduate and graduate students for more than twenty five years, so I agreed to give a series of lectures on boundary layer of the atmosphere. From the start I thought very seriously about the problem and consulted all the published works in English on the Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL). First consider the topography of the Earth which has oceans calm and turbulent, mountain ranges of height up to 9 km, lands of variable height with forests, food growing vegetable and deserts. The shape of the Earth is nearly spherical except at the north and south poles. Sun supplies the energy to drive circulation of air around the Earth's atmosphere which for all practical purposes occupies the region up to about 10 to 11 km. This brief scenerio of Earth's topography reveals the complexity of flow very close to the Earth's surface that is hardly flat except at the oceans' surface which consists of about 70% of the total Earth's surface.

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This book assumes no previous knowledge of the subject and the material has been selected to introduce the reader to the important ideas and applications. It is particularly well suited as an introduction to the subject for engineers. The first four chapters define and describe the atmospheric boundary layer. Thermodynamic and fluid kinematic considerations are introduced, and one chapter is devoted to the description of turbulent motion in the boundary layer of the atmosphere. The fifth chapter is a very useful presentation on dimensional methods and similarity. In Chapter 6 the complex turbulent flow over the surface of the earth is approximated by flow over the half-space of a flat plate for a neutrally stratified fluid. The final chapter describes the first 50 meters, the so-called surface layer, with reference to asymptotic theories and reliable observations.

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This book assumes no previous knowledge of the subject and the material has been selected to introduce the reader to the important ideas and applications. It is particularly well suited as an introduction to the subject for engineers. The first four chapters define and describe the atmospheric boundary layer. Thermodynamic and fluid kinematic considerations are introduced, and one chapter is devoted to the description of turbulent motion in the boundary layer of the atmosphere. The fifth chapter is a very useful presentation on dimensional methods and similarity. In Chapter 6 the complex turbulent flow over the surface of the earth is approximated by flow over the half-space of a flat plate for a neutrally stratified fluid. The final chapter describes the first 50 meters, the so-called surface layer, with reference to asymptotic theories and reliable observations.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
General Description of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 1-34
Thermodynamics of Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 35-89
Kinematics of Fluid Motion....Pages 90-129
Equations Describing Turbulent Motion in the Boundary Layer of the Atmosphere....Pages 130-228
Dimensional Analysis and Similarity....Pages 229-296
Basics of Usual Turbulent Boundary Layer; Neutrally Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 297-382
The Atmospheric Surface Layer....Pages 383-529
Back Matter....Pages 530-574

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This book assumes no previous knowledge of the subject and the material has been selected to introduce the reader to the important ideas and applications. It is particularly well suited as an introduction to the subject for engineers. The first four chapters define and describe the atmospheric boundary layer. Thermodynamic and fluid kinematic considerations are introduced, and one chapter is devoted to the description of turbulent motion in the boundary layer of the atmosphere. The fifth chapter is a very useful presentation on dimensional methods and similarity. In Chapter 6 the complex turbulent flow over the surface of the earth is approximated by flow over the half-space of a flat plate for a neutrally stratified fluid. The final chapter describes the first 50 meters, the so-called surface layer, with reference to asymptotic theories and reliable observations.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
General Description of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 1-34
Thermodynamics of Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 35-89
Kinematics of Fluid Motion....Pages 90-129
Equations Describing Turbulent Motion in the Boundary Layer of the Atmosphere....Pages 130-228
Dimensional Analysis and Similarity....Pages 229-296
Basics of Usual Turbulent Boundary Layer; Neutrally Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layer....Pages 297-382
The Atmospheric Surface Layer....Pages 383-529
Back Matter....Pages 530-574
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