Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Professor at the University of Twente

Wind energy · Turbulence · Environmental flows

Publication 26 · Atmospheric turbulence

A wavenumber-frequency spectral model for atmospheric boundary layers

M. Wilczek, R.J.A.M. Stevens, Y. Narita, C. Meneveau, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 524, 012104 (2014).

Read the article

Main finding

A random-sweeping model represents atmospheric velocity spectra through mean advection and frequency broadening by larger eddies. Its documented limits preclude treating it as complete dynamics, quantified predictive accuracy or demonstrated wind-farm transfer.

Wavenumber-frequency spectra from simulation and from the model side by side
How to read the figure. The wavenumber-frequency spectrum of streamwise velocity in a neutral boundary layer, from large-eddy simulation and from the model, side by side. The model reproduces the ridge that marks structures being advected past a point, but renders it narrower and straighter than the simulation does. That broadening is large eddies varying the speed at which smaller structures are carried past. The figure shows a leading-order representation and its failure mode at once; it is not a complete dynamical model or a quantified prediction error. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 2. M. Wilczek et al. (2014). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

Large eddies vary the speed at which smaller structures pass a point.

Research context

The analytical model adapts random-sweeping theory to a neutral rough-wall boundary layer: the mean flow shifts the frequency distribution and large-scale velocity variability broadens it. The wall and spectral laws are inherited from foundational literature rather than identified by this LES alone.

View in the complete publication list Related atmospheric boundary layer research