| Snow Gauges |
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| Bias in precipitation measurements is a bottleneck to future climate change research. Gauge design has the main role on accurately measuring precipitation; however, the presence of the gauge and windshields intensifies local turbulence which leads to catch performance degeneration.The gauge outer shape causes an updraft flow at the orifice plane causing undercatch of precipitation inside the collecting area. Accordingly, a correction factor is required to account for the error associated with wind effects as well as other losses including wetting and evaporation of the snowflakes. To reduce updrafting, collectors are shielded with thin slats. CFD offers the opportunity for detailed analysis of hydrometer measurement techniques. |
| Urban Climate Modeling |
| The ability to simulate correctly the flow around buildings is of great interest in meteorology, wind energy, pollutants dispersion and air quality. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been as a possible option for these studies recently. Here, we are interested in studying the effect of the choice of turbulence model, analyzing the effect of the choice of interpolation schemes during the post-processing of the results and investigating unsteady RANS(URANS) versus RANS. |
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Sample Publications
(2017) Numerical simulation of wind-induced turbulence over precipitation gauges, Atmospheric Research 189, p. 82-98, doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.01.016
(2017) A CFD study of the influence of turbulence on undercatch of precipitation gauges, Atmospheric Research 197, doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.07.008