Improved κ-ε model and wall function formulation for the RANS simulation of ABL flows

The simulation of Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flows is usually performed using the commercial CFD codes with RANS turbulence modelling and standard sand-grain rough wall functions. Such approach generally results in the undesired decay of the velocity and turbulent profiles specified at the domain inlet, before they reach the section of interest within the computational domain. This behaviour is a direct consequence of the inconsistency between the fully developed ABL inlet profiles and the wall function formulation. The present paper addresses the aforementioned issue and proposes a solution to it. A modified formulation of the Richards and Hoxey wall function for turbulence production is presented to avoid the well-documented over-prediction of the turbulent kinetic energy at the wall. Moreover, a modification of the standard kappa-epsilon turbulence model is proposed to allow specific arbitrary sets of fully developed profiles at the inlet section of the computational domain. The methodology is implemented and tested in the commercial code FLUENT v6.3 by means of the User Defined Functions (UDF). Results are presented for two neutral boundary layers over flat terrain, at wind tunnel and full scale, and for the flow around a bluff-body immersed into a wind-tunnel ABL The potential of the proposed methodology in ensuring the homogeneity of velocity and turbulence quantities throughout the computational domain is demonstrated. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.