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Momentum and Turbulent Transport in Sparse, Organized Vegetative Canopies

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Abstract

The effect of canopy heterogeneity on mean and turbulent transport processes is studied using a scaled wind-tunnel model of a vineyard canopy with gap spacings of one, two, and three canopy heights. A row-normal freestream velocity component is applied to each canopy configuration and spatial distributions of velocity across a streamwise-vertical plane centred around a single canopy gap are measured using particle imaging velocimetry. Mean flow features including an updraft in the centre of the canopy followed by a descent and recirculation just upstream of the downstream row are observed to decrease in size and magnitude for larger canopy gaps. Turbulence in the canopy sublayer (CSL) is dominated by a growing mixing layer that originates at the top of the upstream row and consumes the underlying weak more isotropic turbulence. The mixing layer’s rate of growth into the CSL decreases as the canopy gap widens, but not enough to offset the increased downstream distance. The vertical extent of the mixing layer into the canopy before being impeded by the downstream row is the main factor that determines horizontal heterogeneity of turbulence in the canopy. An analysis of the Reynolds-averaged turbulence-kinetic-energy budget points to shear production being the main source of turbulence near the canopy top, while turbulent transport is responsible for the growth of the mixing layer down into the CSL.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation through grants AGS-1255662 and AGS-1660367. Funding was also provided by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute for Food and Agriculture Specialty Crop Research Initiative Award No. 2018-03375 and the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service through Research Support Agreement 58-2072-0-036.

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  1. University of Utah Mechanical Engineering, 1495 E 100 S MEK 1550, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112, USA

    Gregory Torkelson, Timothy A. Price & Rob Stoll

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  1. Gregory Torkelson
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Correspondence to Rob Stoll.

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Torkelson, G., Price, T.A. & Stoll, R. Momentum and Turbulent Transport in Sparse, Organized Vegetative Canopies. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 184, 1–24 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-022-00698-6

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