Comment to Atmospheric boundary layer modeling in a short wind tunnel by Dan Hlevca and Mircea Deguratu, EJM/B Fluids, 79 (2020), 367-375

George Santayana's aphorism Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it has never been more apposite than as applied to this paper. The paper rebutted here reproduces, without any form of acknowledgement, the method of reproducing characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) in a wind tunnel published in 1957 (Owen and Zienkiewicz, 1957). This method, together with the complementary method of Elder (Elder, 1957), was in widespread use through the 1960s before its inadequacies were recognised and it was supplanted by rough-wall boundary layers generated in the new generation of boundary-layer wind tunnels. This paper does not qualify as novel or original work worthy of publication in 2020. (C) 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper highlights the replication of an outdated method in a recent publication without proper acknowledgment, making it unworthy of publication in 2020.