Analysis of Thermal and Roughness Effects on the Turbulent Characteristics of Experimentally Simulated Boundary Layers in a Wind Tunnel

The aim of this paper is to analyse the thermal effects in a wind tunnel experiment to simulate the planetary boundary layer (PBL). Experiments were performed in the wind tunnel of the Laboratory of Constructions Aerodynamics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. This wind tunnel is a closed return low-speed wind tunnel specifically designed for dynamic and static studies on civil construction models. As a novelty, one of the experimental sections of the wind tunnel was equipped with a metal sheet with Peltier elements coupled to it. In other words, thermal effects generating new flow patterns become feasible and open pathways to compare wind tunnel simulations to those in the PBL. Furthermore, measurements obtained with the smooth floor of the wind tunnel were repeated under the same conditions with the addition of the roughness in the floor, and the mechanical turbulence generated by the surface roughness significantly amplified the exchange of momentum and heat between the regions located in vertical direction of the wind tunnel boundary layer. In the presence of turbulent heat flux near the surface, thermal effects contribute to the increase of the turbulence intensity. Turbulent energy spectra for flow velocities and different heights were obtained using the Hilbert–Huang transform method, and the observed convective turbulence energy spectra behavior reproduced those measured in an unstable surface PBL.