Simulations of separated flow over two-dimensional hills

Abstract

Simulations of separated flow over smooth two-dimensional sinusoidal hills were performed, for hills of varying aspect ratio, using the atmospheric model Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) and the engineering model Fluent. This was done with the intent of testing the performance of RAMS when applied to simulations of resolution ~ 1 m. For certain cases, RAMS and Fluent produced mean velocity fields which differed substantially from each other and from wind tunnel observations. The difference in large-scale flow features is believed to be a result of the models’ different representation of the hill surface. © 2009, Elsevier Ltd.