Investigation of upslope flow through real-field measurement and numerical simulations

Slope winds play a crucial role in a range of environmental applications such as air pollution dispersion, fire weather and smoke management, aerial spraying and agriculture with direct impacts also on public health. Each of these areas relies on accurate predictions of slope wind behaviors, highlighting the importance of understanding and managing these local wind patterns Chow et al. [2013]. Small-scale turbulent processes associated with their thermo-dynamics and evolution near the surface. This thesis characterizes an upslope flow observed during the MATERHORN measurement campaign. The experimental results were used to develop numerical simulations using a Computational Fluid Dynamics model aimed at accurately reproducing the observed flow and analyzing its turbulent characteristics. The simulations were carried out using the Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) approach, which allows for the direct resolution of the largest, highly energetic motion scales while modeling the smaller scales. Specifically, the contributions of buoyancy, thermal stratification, and a mechanical forcing were studied separately. An inertial forcing modeled as pressure gradient has been introduced into the equations of motion once it was verified that the observed flow was not exclusively thermally-driven. The comparison between the simulation results and the experimental data revealed that the simplified assumptions adopted in the model were insufficient, preventing an accurate reproduction of the observed flow.