Concentration fluctuations and fluxes in plumes from point sources in a turbulent boundary layer

Abstract

Measurements have been made of concentration fluctuations and turbulent fluxes for two passive plumes from an elevated and a ground-level source in a turbulent boundary layer. For the concentration fluctuations, results are presented for the variance, the intermittency, peak values of concentration, probability-density functions and spectra. The balance of terms in the variance transport equation is examined, as is the overall level of fluctuations along the plume. It is shown that most of the production of fluctuations occurs very near the source. Then, the level of fluctuation decays, roughly in accordance with a balance between advection and dissipation. For the turbulent fluxes of concentration, results are presented for the vertical and lateral fluxes, with the associated behaviour of the vertical and lateral eddy diffusivities. The balance of terms in the transport equations for the fluxes is examined. The essential differences between vertical diffusion from ground-level and elevated sources and between near-field and far-field behaviour are shown to be due to the relative importance of the advection and diffusion terms in these equations.