Assessment of Numerical and Modeling Errors of RANS-based Transition Models for Low-Reynolds Number 2-D Flows based Transition Models
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Landslides are recognized as common triggers of glacial lake outburst floods in high mountain regions, but the remoteness of dangerous glacial lakes makes monitoring and disaster management very difficult. Using a very high resolution digital elevation model produced from a series of stereo satellite images, we simulate debris flows and rock avalanche runout around two very dangerous lakes in high mountain Nepal. We constrain particularly likely sources of these slope failures to simulate 79,800 potential debris flows and rock avalanches of volumes ranging from 1,000 m3 to 1,000,000 m3. This allowed us to identify zones in and around dangerous glacial lakes that are most exposed to landslide runout hazards, along with the most frequent source areas that produced landslides that may run into either of the two glacial lakes. Although our empirical-statistical model presented limitations that numerical models attempt to overcome, our probabilistic approach combined with a very high resolution DEM may shed new light on how to identify sources and impact areas of debris flows and rock avalanches that may cascade into downstream disasters.
Introduction: Numerical modeling of impact cratering has reached a high degree of sophistication; however, the treatment of porous materials still poses a large problem in hydrocode calculations. Porosity plays only a minor role in the formation of large craters on most planetary objects, but impacts on comets are believed to be highly affected by the presence of porosity, which may be as much as 80%. The upcoming Deep Impact Mission (launched January 2005) will provide more detailed data about the composition of a comet (Tempel 1) by shooting a approx.370 kg projectile onto the surface of its nucleus. The numerical simulations of such impact events requires an appropriate model for how pore space in the comet is crushed out during the violent initial stage of the impact event. Most hydro-codes compute the pressure explicitly using an "equation of state" (EOS) for each material, which relates changes in density and internal energy to changes in pressure. The added complication introduced by porosity is that changes in a material s density are due to both the closing of pore space (compaction) and compression of the matrix. The amount of resistance to volume change and the amount of irreversible work done during these two processes is very different; it is far easier to compact a porous material sample than to compress a non-porous sample of the same material. As an alternative to existing porosity models, like the Pdot(alpha) model [1], we present a novel approach for dealing with the compaction of porosity in hydrocode calculations.
Under funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), the Mississippi State University Center for Air Sea Technology (CAST) has been working on developing a Relocatable Modeling Environment(RME) to provide a uniform and unbiased infrastructure for efficiently configuring numerical models in any geographic/oceanic region. Under Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVO-CEANO) funding, the model was implemented and tested for NAVOCEANO use. With our current emphasis on ocean tidal modeling, CAST has adopted the Colorado University's numerical ocean model, known as CURReNTSS (Colorado University Rapidly Relocatable Nestable Storm Surge) Model, as the model of choice. During the RME development process, CURReNTSS has been relocated to several coastal oceanic regions, providing excellent results that demonstrate its veracity. This report documents the model validation results and provides a brief description of the Graphic user Interface (GUI).
Under funding from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), the Mississippi State University Center for Air Sea Technology (CAST) has been working on developing a Relocatable Modeling Environment (RME) to provide a uniform and unbiased infrastructure for efficiently configuring numerical models in any geographic or oceanic region. Under Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) funding, the model was implemented and tested for NAVOCEANO use. With our current emphasis on ocean tidal modeling, CAST has adopted the Colorado University's numerical ocean model, known as CURReNTSS (Colorado University Rapidly Relocatable Nestable Storm Surge) Model, as the model of choice. During the RME development process, CURReNTSS has been relocated to several coastal oceanic regions, providing excellent results that demonstrate its veracity. This report documents the model validation results and provides a brief description of the Graphic user Interface.
The present 'first order' analytical and numerical models of light curves due to mutual events between close planetary binaries, the effects of shadowing are included. Attention is given to the case of the Pluto-Charon system. The results of the analytical and numerical approaches agree to well within the expected light curve measurement error. The model predicts that the current mutual eclipse event series will end by November 1990.
Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent flows provide a complete data base to develop and to test turbulence models. In this article, the progress made in developing models for the dissipation rate equation is reviewed. New scaling arguments for the various terms in the dissipation rate equation were tested using data from DNS of homogeneous shear flows. Modifications to the epsilon-equation model that take into account near-wall effects were developed using DNS of turbulent channel flows. Testing of new models for flows under mean compression was carried out using data from DNS of isotropically compressed turbulence. In all of these studies the data from the simulations was essential in guiding the model development. The next generation of DNS will be at higher Reynolds numbers, and will undoubtedly lead to improved models for computations of flows of practical interest.
Ice sheet numerical modeling is an important tool to estimate the dynamic contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to sea level rise over the coming centuries. The influence of initial conditions on ice sheet model simulations, however, is still unclear. To better understand this influence, an initial state intercomparison exercise (initMIP) has been developed to compare, evaluate, and improve initialization procedures and estimate their impact on century-scale simulations. initMIP is the first set of experiments of the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6), which is the primary Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) activity focusing on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Following initMIP-Greenland, initMIP-Antarctica has been designed to explore uncertainties associated with model initialization and spin-up and to evaluate the impact of changes in external forcings. Starting from the state of the Antarctic ice sheet at the end of the initialization procedure, three forward experiments are each run for 100 years: a control run, a run with a surface mass balance anomaly, and a run with a basal melting anomaly beneath floating ice. This study presents the results of initMIP-Antarctica from 25 simulations performed by 16 international modeling groups. The submitted results use different initial conditions and initialization methods, as well as ice flow model parameters and reference external forcings. We find a good agreement among model responses to the surface mass balance anomaly but large variations in responses to the basal melting anomaly. These variations can be attributed to differences in the extent of ice shelves and their upstream tributaries, the numerical treatment of grounding line, and the initial ocean conditions applied, suggesting that ongoing efforts to better represent ice shelves in continental-scale models should continue.
There are numerous challenges in successfully implementing and interpreting planetary ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements. Many are due to substantial uncertainties in the target ground parameters and the intervening medium (i.e., the ionosphere). These uncertainties generate a compelling need for meaningful quantitative simulation of the planetary GPR problem. An accurate numerical model would enable realistic numerical GPR simulations using parameter regimes much broader than are possible in laboratory or field experiments. Parameters such as source bandwidth and power, surface and subsurface features, and ionospheric profiles could be rapidly iterated to understand their impact on GPR performance and the reliable interpretation of GPR data.
A numerical model of the Ares I upper stage main propulsion system is formulated based on first principles. Equation's are written as non-linear ordinary differential equations. The GASP fortran code is used to compute thermophysical properties of the working fluids. Complicated algebraic constraints are numerically solved. The model is implemented in Simulink and provides a rudimentary simulation of the time history of important pressures and temperatures during re-pressurization, boost and upper stage firing. The model is validated against an existing reliable code, and typical results are shown.
In this paper, we discuss some aspects of numerical modeling of electromagnetic scattering by discrete random medium by using numerically exact solutions of the macroscopic Maxwell equations. Typical examples of such media are clouds of interstellar dust, clouds of interplanetary dust in the Solar system, dusty atmospheres of comets, particulate planetary rings, clouds in planetary atmospheres, aerosol particles with numerous inclusions and so on. Our study is based on the results of extensive computations of different characteristics of electromagnetic scattering obtained by using the superposition T-matrix method which represents a direct computer solver of the macroscopic Maxwell equations for an arbitrary multisphere configuration. As a result, in particular, we clarify the range of applicability of the low-density theories of radiative transfer and coherent backscattering as well as of widely used effective-medium approximations.
High-resolution calculations of the wintertime stationary atmospheric response to planetary scale topographic and thermal forcings have been made using a numerical model that solves the spherical primitive equations linearized about observed zonal wind and temperature fields. The model equations are presented and their numerical implementation is discussed. The model inputs and parameters are presented and the model's response to relativistic forcing is analyzed. In middle latitudes the response to topographic forcing strongly dominates the response to thermal forcing. In the midlatitude troposphere, the topographic response is insensitive to changes in the zonal wind. In the stratosphere, both the variance and mean are dominated by the topographic response. In general, the sensitivity of the planetary waves to changes in the zonal wind is found to be much smaller than other recent calculations have indicated.
DMRT-ML is a physically based numerical model designed to compute the thermal microwave emission of a given snowpack. Its main application is the simulation of brightness temperatures at frequencies in the range 1-200 GHz similar to those acquired routinely by spacebased microwave radiometers. The model is based on the Dense Media Radiative Transfer (DMRT) theory for the computation of the snow scattering and extinction coefficients and on the Discrete Ordinate Method (DISORT) to numerically solve the radiative transfer equation. The snowpack is modeled as a stack of multiple horizontal snow layers and an optional underlying interface representing the soil or the bottom ice. The model handles both dry and wet snow conditions. Such a general design allows the model to account for a wide range of snow conditions. Hitherto, the model has been used to simulate the thermal emission of the deep firn on ice sheets, shallow snowpacks overlying soil in Arctic and Alpine regions, and overlying ice on the large icesheet margins and glaciers. DMRT-ML has thus been validated in three very different conditions: Antarctica, Barnes Ice Cap (Canada) and Canadian tundra. It has been recently used in conjunction with inverse methods to retrieve snow grain size from remote sensing data. The model is written in Fortran90 and available to the snow remote sensing community as an open-source software. A convenient user interface is provided in Python.
A numerical experiment was carried out to determine the effect of sea surface temperature anomalies over the Pacific on the circulation over North America. The sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly pattern chosen for this study was similar to the one observed during January 1977. It is shown that a cold sea surface temperature anomaly over the Pacific produces a strong southward flow over the United States and colder temperature in eastern Canada and the United States, as it was observed during the 1977 winter. The results indicate that the SST anomaly over the Pacific can produce a significant downstream effect over the continental United States.
Numerous data models have been reported in the literature since the early 1970's. They have been used as database interfaces and as conceptual design tools. The mapping between schemas expressed according to the same data model or according to different models is interesting for theoretical and practical purposes. This paper addresses some of the issues involved in such a mapping. Of special interest are the identification of the mapping parameters and some current approaches for handling the various situations that require a mapping.
A numerical advection model which can be run on a local computer in a real-time forecast environment is described. This isentropic forecast model provides the local forecast office with easy access to temporally and spatially detailed estimates of atmospheric temperature, moisture, and wind field changes between 12-h rawinsonde observations. Case studies are presented based on the use of the model to predict the preconvective environment in spring and summer situations. Short-term forecasts of midtropospheric static stability patterns and stability index changes are traced for several severe storm events with and without the inclusion of surface data observed during the day. Forecast images of VAS low- and midlevel moisture fields and vertical moisture gradients are compared with the observations to determine the utility of the combined model/VAS imagery as a nowcasting guide.
Numerical models developed prior to the 1986 spacecraft flybys at comet P/Halley described anticipated dust and gas environments. Predicted values for gas production, for dynamic ranges of gas and dust experiments, and for likely spacecraft effects were matched during the flybys well within expected margins; in particular the dust-impact-generated attitude disturbance experienced by Giotto several seconds before closest approach was within the envelope of expectations from the models. Three major areas are identified in which 1986 results for Halley might be used to improve the models, namely (1) gas production values from earth-based and in situ observations, (2) dust flux and fluence values in the coma from three spacecraft, and (3) dust size distributions from the in situ data which require the presence of numerous particles at masses less than 10 to the -17th kg.
This numerical study of the global distribution of helium in the terrestrial thermosphere is based on the extension of a three-dimensional single-fluid numerical model of the thermosphere previously developed by the authors to treat the dynamics of a minor gas imbedded in a background gas made up of N2, O2, and O. The Cira (1972) model of the upper atmosphere, based on satellite drag data, is used to specify the background gas density and temperature as functions of altitude, latitude, and local time for a given day of the year. Specific emphasis is placed on a study of the helium distribution at solstice, i.e., the 'winter helium bulge'. Effects of solar activity, eddy diffusion, and exospheric transport on the global distribution of helium are investigated. The model reproduces the general features of the winter helium bulge, including the variation of its amplitude with solar activity, as determined by comparison of data from several recent satellite-borne mass spectrometers.