The impact of cold pools and microbursts on engineering infrastructure

Convective squalls are responsible for extreme wind gusts in many parts of the world. These squalls can have a significant impact on structures such as oil platforms or wind turbines. Currently there is no unified quantitative understanding of the turbulence and gusts associated with these phenomena and so design and operations codes rely on simplistic and over-cautious models. These flows are transient, with anisotrophic turbulence and strong stratification and so classical log profiles are not appropriate. This project will aim to quantify the profiles of mean wind and peak gust strength of convective cold pools and microburst as a function of the bulk parameters of the flow, and to investigate the role of wind shear in moderating these profiles. This will be done through a series of numerical simulations using the Met Office Large-Eddy Model (LEM). For interested students there may also be opportunities for laboratory experiments in the Sorby Lab. The results will be compared with existing wind profiles used in engineering design to study the impact of these phenomena on engineering infrastructure and to help develop improved guidance for engineers. To quantify the impact some benchmark cases using real structures will be studied. This project offers a fascinating fundamental atmospheric fluid dynamics problem, with real world engineering applications.