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Wind Profile Parameter Estimation Using Mathcad
Author(s) -
Howell Terry A.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1990.00021962008200050038x
Subject(s) - convergence (economics) , wind speed , aerodynamics , displacement (psychology) , roughness length , boundary layer , software , mathematics , adiabatic process , boundary (topology) , momentum (technical analysis) , wind profile power law , wind tunnel , mechanics , engineering , meteorology , mathematical analysis , computer science , physics , psychology , finance , economics , psychotherapist , thermodynamics , programming language , economic growth
Wind profile parameters are required to estimate aerodynamic boundary layer resistances for heat, water vapor, and momentum transfer. Traditional methods used to compute these parameters take time to program, are slow to reach solutions, and often fail to achieve solution convergence. This study evaluated the applicability of a commercial mathematics software package, MathCAD, to estimate the three parameters—friction velocity (U * ), zero‐plane displacement height (4, and the roughness length, Zo—of the adiabatic log‐law wind profile. The solutions were evaluated and compared to previous published solutions for several wind profiles using traditional methods. MathCAD was found to solve the wind profiles rapidly without convergence difficulty on the tested profiles. In all the comparisons, MathCAD produced almost exact duplications of previously published results. The ease, speed, and accuracy of the solution method employed in MathCAD appear to be superior to the more traditional methods.