Intermittent turbulence in the very stable Ekman layer

This study describes a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of a very stable Ekman layer in which a constant downward heat flux is applied at the lower boundary, thus cooling the fluid above. Numerical experiments were performed in which the strength of the imposed heat flux was varied. For downward heat fluxes above a certain critical value the turbulence becomes intermittent and, as the heat flux increases beyond this value, the flow tends to relaminarize because of the very strong ambient stratification.; We adopt Mahrt's (1999) definition of the very stable boundary layer as a boundary layer in which intermittent, rather than continuous turbulence, is observed. Numerical experiments were used to test various hypothesis of where in “stability parameter space” the very stable boundary layer is found. These experiments support the findings of Howell and Sun (1999) that the boundary layer will exhibit intermittency and therefore be categorized as “very stable”, when the stability parameter, z/ Λ, exceeds unity. Another marker for the very stable boundary layer, Derbyshire's (1990) maximum heat flux criterion, was also examined.; Using a case study drawn from the simulations where turbulence intermittency was observed, the mechanism that causes the intermittence was investigated. It was found that patchy turbulence originates from a vigorous inflectional, Ekman-like instability—a roll cell—that lifts colder air over warmer air. The resulting convective instability causes an intense burst of turbulence. This turbulence is short-lived because the lifting motion of the roll cell, as well as the roll cell itself, is partially destroyed after the patchy turbulence is generated.; Examples of intermittent turbulence obtained from the simulations appear to be consistent with observations of intermittency even though the Reynolds number of the DNS is relatively low (400).