A LABORATORY MODEL OF TURBULENT CONVECTION IN THE ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARY-LAYER

A laboratory model of the Convective Atmospheric Boundary Layer, consisting of a convection chamber, is used in order to carry out an experimental analysis of the flow field. The thermal structure and the turbulence statistics moments are investigated. Temperature was measured by a thermocouple while vertical velocity was sensed by a Laser-Doppler anemometer. Using the Convective Boundary Layer scaling, turbulent, heat flux, vertical velocity and temperature variance, and probability distributions are presented and compared with other experiments, both in the atmosphere and in laboratory models. Autocorrelation and spectra are evaluated as well. The overall agreement of the present results with other data suggests that a satisfying simulation of the Convective Boundary Layer has been reached although a mean wind was not present in the tank.