I. Rogachevskii

We investigate experimentally the phenomenon of turbulent thermal diffusion of micrometer-size solid particles in an inhomogeneous convective turbulence forced by one vertically oriented oscillating grid in an air flow. This effect causes the formation of large-scale inhomogeneities in particle spatial distributions in a temperature-stratified turbulence. We perform detailed comparisons of the experimental results with those obtained in our previous experiments with an inhomogeneous and anisotropic stably stratified turbulence produced by a one oscillating grid in the air flow. Since the buoyancy increases the turbulent kinetic energy for convective turbulence and decreases it for stably stratified turbulence, the measured turbulent velocities for convective turbulence are larger than those for stably stratified turbulence. This tendency is also seen in the measured vertical integral turbulent length scales. Measurements of temperature and particle number density spatial distributions show that particles are accumulated in the vicinity of the minimum of the mean temperature due to the phenomenon of turbulent thermal diffusion. This effect is observed in both convective and stably stratified turbulence, where we find the effective turbulent thermal diffusion coefficient for micrometer-size particles. The obtained experimental results are in agreement with theoretical predictions.

The energy- and flux-budget (EFB) theory developed previously for atmospheric stably stratified turbulence is extended to the surface layer in atmospheric convective turbulence. This theory is based on budget equations for turbulent energies and fluxes in the Boussinesq approximation. In the lower part of the surface layer in the atmospheric convective boundary layer, the rate of turbulence production of the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) caused by the surface shear is much larger than that caused by the buoyancy, which results in three-dimensional turbulence of very complex nature. In the upper part of the surface layer, the rate of turbulence production of TKE due to the shear is much smaller than that caused by the buoyancy, which causes unusual strongly anisotropic buoyancy-driven turbulence. Considering the applications of the obtained results to the atmospheric convective boundary-layer turbulence, the theoretical relationships potentially useful in modeling applications have been derived. The developed EFB theory allows us to obtain a smooth transition between a stably stratified turbulence to a convective turbulence. The EFB theory for the surface layer in a convective turbulence provides an analytical expression for the entire surface layer including the transition range between the lower and upper parts of the surface layer, and it allows us to determine the vertical profiles for all turbulent characteristics, including TKE, the intensity of turbulent potential temperature fluctuations, the vertical turbulent fluxes of momentum and buoyancy (proportional to potential temperature), the integral turbulence scale, the turbulence anisotropy, the turbulent Prandtl number, and the flux Richardson number.