A wind tunnel study of dense gas dispersion in a stable boundary layer over a rough surface

Measurements of the vertical entrainment velocity into two-dimensional dense gas plumes over fully rough surfaces were carried out as part of a co-operative research programme with wind tunnel facilities in the USA. This paper presents results obtained for stable boundary layer conditions in the EnFlo wind tunnel at the University of Surrey; a companion paper treats the neutral boundary layer case. Mean velocity and temperature, turbulent normal and shear tresses, temperature fluctuations and heat fluxes were measured and used to demonstrate that a moderately stable atmospheric boundary layer had been successfully simulated in the tunnel. Entrainment velocities, W_E, were then deduced from the streamwise development of the concentration field, non-dimensionalised with respect to the friction velocity in the undisturbed flow, u^*, and correlated with the plume Richardson number, Ri^*. Higher non-dimensional entrainment speeds, W_E/u^*, were observed for Ri^*>5 in the stable boundary layer than in the neutral boundary layer, the difference growing with increasing Richardson number. Emission velocity ratios, W₀/u^*, were however larger in the stable experiments, and exceeded one at about Ri^*=18. Entrainment in the stable boundary layer appeared therefore to be more sensitive to emission velocity ratio than in the neutral case. Entrainment behaviour for Ri^*⩽5 followed that found in the neutral boundary layer. In this regime, use of the neutral boundary layer entrainment speed correlation is unlikely to lead to the over-prediction of plume dilution rates in moderately stable boundary layers.