Addressing the Grid-Size Sensitivity Issue in Large-Eddy Simulations of Stable Boundary Layers

Journal Article (2020)
Author(s)

Y. Dai (TU Delft - Atmospheric Remote Sensing)

Sukanta Basu (TU Delft - Atmospheric Remote Sensing)

Björn Maronga (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Leibniz University of Hannover)

Stephan De Roode (TU Delft - Atmospheric Remote Sensing)

Research Group
Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Copyright
© 2020 Y. Dai, S. Basu, Björn Maronga, S.R. de Roode
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-020-00558-1
More Info
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Publication Year
2020
Language
English
Copyright
© 2020 Y. Dai, S. Basu, Björn Maronga, S.R. de Roode
Research Group
Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Issue number
1
Volume number
178
Pages (from-to)
63-89
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Abstract

We have identified certain fundamental limitations of a mixing-length parametrization used in a popular turbulent kinetic energy-based subgrid-scale model. Replacing this parametrization with a more physically realistic one significantly improves the overall quality of the large-eddy simulation (LES) of stable boundary layers. For the range of grid sizes considered here (specifically, 1 m–12.5 m), the revision dramatically reduces the grid-size sensitivity of the simulations. Most importantly, the revised scheme allows us to reliably estimate the first- and second-order statistics of a well-known LES intercomparison case, even with a coarse grid size of O(10 m).