TURBULENT TRANSFER IN THE BOUNDARY LAYER OF A STRATIFIED FLUID

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis is made of some characteristics of the steady turbulent transfer in the boundary layer of a stratified fluid. The effect of the heat flux on the variation of the mixing length and the flux Richardson number with height is determined. The velocity and temperature profiles are derived. It is found that for a constant free-stream velocity an upward heat flux increases the friction velocity, whereas a down-ward heat flux decreases the friction velocity. The lower limiting value of the flux Richardson number is found to be ?0.5 which, together with the upper limiting value, 0.5, obtained by Townsend, gives the range of the flux Richardson number. Velocity profiles for the non-neutral conditions converge in the higher level towards the profile for the neutral condition, a characteristic which agrees with the classical velocity profiles observed by Thornthwaite and Kaser.