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Numerical study of the atmospheric flow over a coastal cliff
Author(s) -
Pires Luciana B. M.,
de Souza Leandro Franco,
Fisch Gilberto,
Gielow Ralf
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in fluids
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1097-0363
pISSN - 0271-2091
DOI - 10.1002/fld.2377
Subject(s) - discretization , cliff , geology , shallow water equations , flow (mathematics) , vorticity , meteorology , mechanics , geometry , marine engineering , mathematics , vortex , geography , engineering , physics , mathematical analysis , oceanography , paleontology
This work presents a numerical method suitable for the study of the development of internal boundary layers (IBL) and their characteristics for flows over various types of coastal cliffs. The IBL is an important meteorological occurrence for flows with surface roughness and topographical step changes. A two‐dimensional flow program was used for this study. The governing equations were written using the vorticity–velocity formulation. The spatial derivatives were discretized by high‐order compact finite differences schemes. The time integration was performed with a low storage fourth‐order Runge–Kutta scheme. The coastal cliff (step) was specified through an immersed boundary method. The validation of the code was done by comparison of the results with experimental and observational data. The numerical simulations were carried out for different coastal cliff heights and inclinations. The results show that the predominant factors for the height of the IBL and its characteristics are the upstream velocity, and the height and form (inclination) of the coastal cliff. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.