Matching Items (11)
Filtering by

Clear all filters

151515-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
This thesis outlines the development of a vector retrieval technique, based on data assimilation, for a coherent Doppler LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). A detailed analysis of the Optimal Interpolation (OI) technique for vector retrieval is presented. Through several modifications to the OI technique, it is shown that the modified

This thesis outlines the development of a vector retrieval technique, based on data assimilation, for a coherent Doppler LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging). A detailed analysis of the Optimal Interpolation (OI) technique for vector retrieval is presented. Through several modifications to the OI technique, it is shown that the modified technique results in significant improvement in velocity retrieval accuracy. These modifications include changes to innovation covariance portioning, covariance binning, and analysis increment calculation. It is observed that the modified technique is able to make retrievals with better accuracy, preserves local information better, and compares well with tower measurements. In order to study the error of representativeness and vector retrieval error, a lidar simulator was constructed. Using the lidar simulator a thorough sensitivity analysis of the lidar measurement process and vector retrieval is carried out. The error of representativeness as a function of scales of motion and sensitivity of vector retrieval to look angle is quantified. Using the modified OI technique, study of nocturnal flow in Owens' Valley, CA was carried out to identify and understand uncharacteristic events on the night of March 27th 2006. Observations from 1030 UTC to 1230 UTC (0230 hr local time to 0430 hr local time) on March 27 2006 are presented. Lidar observations show complex and uncharacteristic flows such as sudden bursts of westerly cross-valley wind mixing with the dominant up-valley wind. Model results from Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS®) and other in-situ instrumentations are used to corroborate and complement these observations. The modified OI technique is used to identify uncharacteristic and extreme flow events at a wind development site. Estimates of turbulence and shear from this technique are compared to tower measurements. A formulation for equivalent wind speed in the presence of variations in wind speed and direction, combined with shear is developed and used to determine wind energy content in presence of turbulence.
ContributorsChoukulkar, Aditya (Author) / Calhoun, Ronald (Thesis advisor) / Mahalov, Alex (Committee member) / Kostelich, Eric (Committee member) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
156637-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Earth-system models describe the interacting components of the climate system and

technological systems that affect society, such as communication infrastructures. Data

assimilation addresses the challenge of state specification by incorporating system

observations into the model estimates. In this research, a particular data

assimilation technique called the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) is

applied

Earth-system models describe the interacting components of the climate system and

technological systems that affect society, such as communication infrastructures. Data

assimilation addresses the challenge of state specification by incorporating system

observations into the model estimates. In this research, a particular data

assimilation technique called the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) is

applied to the ionosphere, which is a domain of practical interest due to its effects

on infrastructures that depend on satellite communication and remote sensing. This

dissertation consists of three main studies that propose strategies to improve space-

weather specification during ionospheric extreme events, but are generally applicable

to Earth-system models:

Topic I applies the LETKF to estimate ion density with an idealized model of

the ionosphere, given noisy synthetic observations of varying sparsity. Results show

that the LETKF yields accurate estimates of the ion density field and unobserved

components of neutral winds even when the observation density is spatially sparse

(2% of grid points) and there is large levels (40%) of Gaussian observation noise.

Topic II proposes a targeted observing strategy for data assimilation, which uses

the influence matrix diagnostic to target errors in chosen state variables. This

strategy is applied in observing system experiments, in which synthetic electron density

observations are assimilated with the LETKF into the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-

Electrodynamics Global Circulation Model (TIEGCM) during a geomagnetic storm.

Results show that assimilating targeted electron density observations yields on

average about 60%–80% reduction in electron density error within a 600 km radius of

the observed location, compared to 15% reduction obtained with randomly placed

vertical profiles.

Topic III proposes a methodology to account for systematic model bias arising

ifrom errors in parametrized solar and magnetospheric inputs. This strategy is ap-

plied with the TIEGCM during a geomagnetic storm, and is used to estimate the

spatiotemporal variations of bias in electron density predictions during the

transitionary phases of the geomagnetic storm. Results show that this strategy reduces

error in 1-hour predictions of electron density by about 35% and 30% in polar regions

during the main and relaxation phases of the geomagnetic storm, respectively.
ContributorsDurazo, Juan, Ph.D (Author) / Kostelich, Eric J. (Thesis advisor) / Mahalov, Alex (Thesis advisor) / Tang, Wenbo (Committee member) / Moustaoui, Mohamed (Committee member) / Platte, Rodrigo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
157240-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
The dynamics of a fluid flow inside 2D square and 3D cubic cavities

under various configurations were simulated and analyzed using a

spectral code I developed.

This code was validated against known studies in the 3D lid-driven

cavity. It was then used to explore the various dynamical behaviors

close to the onset

The dynamics of a fluid flow inside 2D square and 3D cubic cavities

under various configurations were simulated and analyzed using a

spectral code I developed.

This code was validated against known studies in the 3D lid-driven

cavity. It was then used to explore the various dynamical behaviors

close to the onset of instability of the steady-state flow, and explain

in the process the mechanism underlying an intermittent bursting

previously observed. A fairly complete bifurcation picture emerged,

using a combination of computational tools such as selective

frequency damping, edge-state tracking and subspace restriction.

The code was then used to investigate the flow in a 2D square cavity

under stable temperature stratification, an idealized version of a lake

with warmer water at the surface compared to the bottom. The governing

equations are the Navier-Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation.

Simulations were done over a wide range of parameters of the problem quantifying

the driving velocity at the top (e.g. wind) and the strength of the stratification.

Particular attention was paid to the mechanisms associated with the onset of

instability of the base steady state, and the complex nontrivial dynamics

occurring beyond onset, where the presence of multiple states leads to a

rich spectrum of states, including homoclinic and heteroclinic chaos.

A third configuration investigates the flow dynamics of a fluid in a rapidly

rotating cube subjected to small amplitude modulations. The responses were

quantified by the global helicity and energy measures, and various peak

responses associated to resonances with intrinsic eigenmodes of the cavity

and/or internal retracing beams were clearly identified for the first time.

A novel approach to compute the eigenmodes is also described, making accessible

a whole catalog of these with various properties and dynamics. When the small

amplitude modulation does not align with the rotation axis (precession) we show

that a new set of eigenmodes are primarily excited as the angular velocity

increases, while triadic resonances may occur once the nonlinear regime kicks in.
ContributorsWu, Ke (Author) / Lopez, Juan (Thesis advisor) / Welfert, Bruno (Thesis advisor) / Tang, Wenbo (Committee member) / Platte, Rodrigo (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
153936-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Presented is a study on the chemotaxis reaction process and its relation with flow topology. The effect of coherent structures in turbulent flows is characterized by studying nutrient uptake and the advantage that is received from motile bacteria over other non-motile bacteria. Variability is found to be dependent on the

Presented is a study on the chemotaxis reaction process and its relation with flow topology. The effect of coherent structures in turbulent flows is characterized by studying nutrient uptake and the advantage that is received from motile bacteria over other non-motile bacteria. Variability is found to be dependent on the initial location of scalar impurity and can be tied to Lagrangian coherent structures through recent advances in the identification of finite-time transport barriers. Advantage is relatively small for initial nutrient found within high stretching regions of the flow, and nutrient within elliptic structures provide the greatest advantage for motile species. How the flow field and the relevant flow topology lead to such a relation is analyzed.
ContributorsJones, Kimberly (Author) / Tang, Wenbo (Thesis advisor) / Kang, Yun (Committee member) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
154540-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
A moving overlapping mesh methodology that achieves spectral accuracy in space and up to second-order accuracy in time is developed for solution of unsteady incompressible flow equations in three-dimensional domains. The targeted applications are in aerospace and mechanical engineering domains and involve problems in turbomachinery, rotary aircrafts, wind turbines and

A moving overlapping mesh methodology that achieves spectral accuracy in space and up to second-order accuracy in time is developed for solution of unsteady incompressible flow equations in three-dimensional domains. The targeted applications are in aerospace and mechanical engineering domains and involve problems in turbomachinery, rotary aircrafts, wind turbines and others. The methodology is built within the dual-session communication framework initially developed for stationary overlapping meshes. The methodology employs semi-implicit spectral element discretization of equations in each subdomain and explicit treatment of subdomain interfaces with spectrally-accurate spatial interpolation and high-order accurate temporal extrapolation, and requires few, if any, iterations, yet maintains the global accuracy and stability of the underlying flow solver. Mesh movement is enabled through the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation of the governing equations, which allows for prescription of arbitrary velocity values at discrete mesh points.

The stationary and moving overlapping mesh methodologies are thoroughly validated using two- and three-dimensional benchmark problems in laminar and turbulent flows. The spatial and temporal global convergence, for both methods, is documented and is in agreement with the nominal order of accuracy of the underlying solver.

Stationary overlapping mesh methodology was validated to assess the influence of long integration times and inflow-outflow global boundary conditions on the performance. In a turbulent benchmark of fully-developed turbulent pipe flow, the turbulent statistics are validated against the available data.

Moving overlapping mesh simulations are validated on the problems of two-dimensional oscillating cylinder and a three-dimensional rotating sphere. The aerodynamic forces acting on these moving rigid bodies are determined, and all results are compared with published data. Scaling tests, with both methodologies, show near linear strong scaling, even for moderately large processor counts.

The moving overlapping mesh methodology is utilized to investigate the effect of an upstream turbulent wake on a three-dimensional oscillating NACA0012 extruded airfoil. A direct numerical simulation (DNS) at Reynolds Number 44,000 is performed for steady inflow incident upon the airfoil oscillating between angle of attack 5.6 and 25 degrees with reduced frequency k=0.16. Results are contrasted with subsequent DNS of the same oscillating airfoil in a turbulent wake generated by a stationary upstream cylinder.
ContributorsMerrill, Brandon Earl (Author) / Peet, Yulia (Thesis advisor) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Committee member) / Kostelich, Eric (Committee member) / Calhoun, Ronald (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
152845-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
There has been important progress in understanding ecological dynamics through the development of the theory of ecological stoichiometry. This fast growing theory provides new constraints and mechanisms that can be formulated into mathematical models. Stoichiometric models incorporate the effects of both food quantity and food quality into a single framework

There has been important progress in understanding ecological dynamics through the development of the theory of ecological stoichiometry. This fast growing theory provides new constraints and mechanisms that can be formulated into mathematical models. Stoichiometric models incorporate the effects of both food quantity and food quality into a single framework that produce rich dynamics. While the effects of nutrient deficiency on consumer growth are well understood, recent discoveries in ecological stoichiometry suggest that consumer dynamics are not only affected by insufficient food nutrient content (low phosphorus (P): carbon (C) ratio) but also by excess food nutrient content (high P:C). This phenomenon, known as the stoichiometric knife edge, in which animal growth is reduced not only by food with low P content but also by food with high P content, needs to be incorporated into mathematical models. Here we present Lotka-Volterra type models to investigate the growth response of Daphnia to algae of varying P:C ratios. Using a nonsmooth system of two ordinary differential equations (ODEs), we formulate the first model to incorporate the phenomenon of the stoichiometric knife edge. We then extend this stoichiometric model by mechanistically deriving and tracking free P in the environment. This resulting full knife edge model is a nonsmooth system of three ODEs. Bifurcation analysis and numerical simulations of the full model, that explicitly tracks phosphorus, leads to quantitatively different predictions than previous models that neglect to track free nutrients. The full model shows that the grazer population is sensitive to excess nutrient concentrations as a dynamical free nutrient pool induces extreme grazer population density changes. These modeling efforts provide insight on the effects of excess nutrient content on grazer dynamics and deepen our understanding of the effects of stoichiometry on the mechanisms governing population dynamics and the interactions between trophic levels.
ContributorsPeace, Angela (Author) / Kuang, Yang (Thesis advisor) / Elser, James J (Committee member) / Baer, Steven (Committee member) / Tang, Wenbo (Committee member) / Kang, Yun (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
152502-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
Climate change has been one of the major issues of global economic and social concerns in the past decade. To quantitatively predict global climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations have organized a multi-national effort to use global atmosphere-ocean models to project anthropogenically induced

Climate change has been one of the major issues of global economic and social concerns in the past decade. To quantitatively predict global climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations have organized a multi-national effort to use global atmosphere-ocean models to project anthropogenically induced climate changes in the 21st century. The computer simulations performed with those models and archived by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project - Phase 5 (CMIP5) form the most comprehensive quantitative basis for the prediction of global environmental changes on decadal-to-centennial time scales. While the CMIP5 archives have been widely used for policy making, the inherent biases in the models have not been systematically examined. The main objective of this study is to validate the CMIP5 simulations of the 20th century climate with observations to quantify the biases and uncertainties in state-of-the-art climate models. Specifically, this work focuses on three major features in the atmosphere: the jet streams over the North Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the low level jet (LLJ) stream over central North America which affects the weather in the United States, and the near-surface wind field over North America which is relevant to energy applications. The errors in the model simulations of those features are systematically quantified and the uncertainties in future predictions are assessed for stakeholders to use in climate applications. Additional atmospheric model simulations are performed to determine the sources of the errors in climate models. The results reject a popular idea that the errors in the sea surface temperature due to an inaccurate ocean circulation contributes to the errors in major atmospheric jet streams.
ContributorsKulkarni, Sujay (Author) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Thesis advisor) / Calhoun, Ronald (Committee member) / Peet, Yulia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
153746-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
For the increasing concerns of influence on environment by fossil-electricity generation, application of renewable energy becomes one of the most focused issues in society. Based on the limitation on urban environment, wind turbines, which can be mounted on rooftop or between buildings, are regarded as a feasible way for wind

For the increasing concerns of influence on environment by fossil-electricity generation, application of renewable energy becomes one of the most focused issues in society. Based on the limitation on urban environment, wind turbines, which can be mounted on rooftop or between buildings, are regarded as a feasible way for wind energy generation. This study presents wind flow simulations in a large-scale environment with certain dimension buildings. Different inlet velocity boundary conditions are tested firstly, and the non-uniform inlet boundary condition shows better agreement with realistic situation. Turbulence intensity is set to be 10% for comparison consistency. The k-epsilon turbulence model is regarded as a better simulation for this certain condition. After that, three different structures, which include single building, pristine double building and modified circular gap double building systems, are tested in this environment condition. The result shows 18.8% velocity increasing on the top of single building system. Pristine double building systems are tested with 4 different gap distances, and building with 10 meters gap achieved the best velocity condition, which 32.8% velocity increasing and 11.8% improvement comparing to single building system, respectively. But the location of maximum velocity moves to the gap and the maximum velocity on the rooftop of double building system is approximately 5.1% lower than single building system. Based on previous study, modified circular gap double building system is created with 10 meters gap. Comparing result with single building system, modified circular gap system achieves higher improvement for wind flow, whose improvement of velocity increasing in the gap and on the rooftop of building are 47.1% and 3.0%, respectively. As a result, the modified circular gap double building can be regarded as a high efficiency system of environmental wind flow over buildings for renewable energy system.
ContributorsLi, Guoyi (Author) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Taewoo (Committee member) / Forzani, Erica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
155407-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
This study uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling to analyze the

dependence of wind power potential and turbulence intensity on aerodynamic design of a

special type of building with a nuzzle-like gap at its rooftop. Numerical simulations using

ANSYS Fluent are carried out to quantify the above-mentioned dependency due to three

major geometric parameters

This study uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling to analyze the

dependence of wind power potential and turbulence intensity on aerodynamic design of a

special type of building with a nuzzle-like gap at its rooftop. Numerical simulations using

ANSYS Fluent are carried out to quantify the above-mentioned dependency due to three

major geometric parameters of the building: (i) the height of the building, (ii) the depth of

the roof-top gap, and (iii) the width of the roof-top gap. The height of the building is varied

from 8 m to 24 m. Likewise, the gap depth is varied from 3 m to 5 m and the gap width

from 2 m to 4 m. The aim of this entire research is to relate these geometric parameters of

the building to the maximum value and the spatial pattern of wind power potential across

the roof-top gap. These outcomes help guide the design of the roof-top geometry for wind

power applications and determine the ideal position for mounting a micro wind turbine.

From these outcomes, it is suggested that the wind power potential is greatly affected by

the increasing gap width or gap depth. It, however, remains insensitive to the increasing

building height, unlike turbulence intensity which increases with increasing building

height. After performing a set of simulations with varying building geometry to quantify

the wind power potential before the installation of a turbine, another set of simulations is

conducted by installing a static turbine within the roof-top gap. The results from the latter

are used to further adjust the estimate of wind power potential. Recommendations are made

for future applications based on the findings from the numerical simulations.
ContributorsKailkhura, Gargi (Author) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Thesis advisor) / Rajagopalan, Jagannathan (Committee member) / Forzani, Erica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
153299-Thumbnail Image.png
Description
With a ground-based Doppler lidar on the upwind side of a wind farm in the Tehachapi Pass of California, radial wind velocity measurements were collected for repeating sector sweeps, scanning up to 10 kilometers away. This region consisted of complex terrain, with the scans made between mountains. The dataset was

With a ground-based Doppler lidar on the upwind side of a wind farm in the Tehachapi Pass of California, radial wind velocity measurements were collected for repeating sector sweeps, scanning up to 10 kilometers away. This region consisted of complex terrain, with the scans made between mountains. The dataset was utilized for techniques being studied for short-term forecasting of wind power by correlating changes in energy content and of turbulence intensity by tracking spatial variance, in the wind ahead of a wind farm. A ramp event was also captured and its propagation was tracked.

Orthogonal horizontal wind vectors were retrieved from the radial velocity using a sector Velocity Azimuth Display method. Streamlines were plotted to determine the potential sites for a correlation of upstream wind speed with wind speed at downstream locations near the wind farm. A "virtual wind turbine" was "placed" in locations along the streamline by using the time-series velocity data at the location as the input to a modeled wind turbine, to determine the extractable energy content at that location. The relationship between this time-dependent energy content upstream and near the wind farm was studied. By correlating the energy content with each upstream location based on a time shift estimated according to advection at the mean wind speed, several fits were evaluated. A prediction of the downstream energy content was produced by shifting the power output in time and applying the best-fit function. This method made predictions of the power near the wind farm several minutes in advance. Predictions were also made up to an hour in advance for a large ramp event. The Magnitude Absolute Error and Standard Deviation are presented for the predictions based on each selected upstream location.
ContributorsMagerman, Beth (Author) / Calhoun, Ronald (Thesis advisor) / Peet, Yulia (Committee member) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Committee member) / Krishnamurthy, Raghavendra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014