MAE 125A: FLOW AND TRANSPORT IN THE ENVIRONMENT

Instructor: Prof. Jan Kleissl, jkleissl at ucsd Lectures: MWF 3-3:50, F 2:30-3 WLH2208 Office Hours:Wed 4-5 Room 580 EBU2 Homework: There will be weekly homework (10% of total grade). Mini-presentation: 5 minute presentation by group (5%). Exams: one midterm on Nov 9 (25%) and final on Dec 14 (60%). Text: There is no set text for this course. Comprehensive notes will be distributed. Class cancellations: Oct 3,5, Oct 22-26 Finals week: Review session Dec 12 430-630pm, Office Hour Dec 14 930-1130am, 1-3pm

Final Friday Dec 14, 3-5pm, Center Hall 205

Course Content:
Topics for Mini-presentations are in small font. Due date for draft is in brackets.

1. Introduction to environmental flows: Intro to atmosphere and oceans. Fluid mechanics of climate change.
   
2. Classification of environmental flows: Turbulent / Laminar flows, stratification, boundary layers, the Boussinesq approximation, basic thermodynamics.
   What is the difference between smooth and rough walls (Ben, Megan, Matthew)? Interpretation of atmospheric soundings.
3. Dimensional analysis: Principles behind dimensional analysis. Pi theorem. Scaling of the governing equations. Water waves. The dispersion relation and deep and shallow water waves. Interfacial waves. Hydraulic control, sub and supercritical flows and the Froude number. The solitary wave and bores. Application to river flows Geoengineering the earth's albedo - implications for climate change (John, Simon, Eric, Ricardo due 11/13).
4. Turbulence and Dispersion in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: flux measurements, Gaussian plume model, advection-diffusion equation. Friction velocity and roughness. Stratified flow and the Obukhov length. Atmospheric measurements and instrumentation
   What is CALPUFF (Chi Wai, Chan Yau, Chi Hang due 11/19 given 11/30)? What is a LiDAR (Nicole, Veronica, Greg due 11/13 given 11/19)? What is a SODAR (Damaris, due 11/26 given 11/28)? Fluid mechanics of wind power (Barry, Mariel, Max due 11/16 given 11/28). Hoes do building models (COMIS) compute wind profiles (Aram, Brian, Jonathan due 11/16 given 11/28)?
5. Gravity currents: Scaling considerations. Benjamin’s analysis. Similarity solutions and shallow water analysis. Applications to the sea-breeze, oil spills and fires, and katabatic flows
   Interpret San Diego meteorological observations (Ernest, Kareem, Richelle due 11/28 given 12/7). Set up and demonstrate weather station.
6. Flow and transport in San Diego: Sea breeze, coastal upwelling, Santa Ana winds

Policy of Academic Honesty

Exam rules

• turn off and stow all portable electronic devices
• open notes, homeworks, official lecture notes, one book of your choice
• midterm covers HW1-5, chapters 1-3
• final covers everything

Homeworks

• Homework 1: Radiation, Solution
• Homework 2: Thermodynamics
• Homework 3: Turbulence in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer
• Homework 4: Atmospheric stability, Dimensional Analysis Solution
• Homework 5: Waves, Review Solution
• Homework 6: Turbulent fluxes
• Homework 7: Remote Sensors, Dispersion models

Lecture Notes
Written by Paul Linden and adapted by Jan Kleissl

• Slides of 1st lecture
• Chapters 1 and 2: Climate Change, Introduction to EFM, atmosphere, and oceans
• Chapter 3: Dimensional Analysis and Waves
• Chapter 4: Advection-diffusion equation
• Slides on Energy Balance, Eddy Covariance measurements
• Chapter 5: Gravity Currents

Presentations

• Difference between smooth and rough walls
• Geoengineering
• Lidar
• SODAR
• COMIS building model
• Fluid Mechanics of Wind Power
• CALPUFF