A new method to calculate wind profile parameters of the wind tunnel boundary layer

This paper introduces a new method to process wind profile data of simulated atmospheric boundary layer flows in the wind tunnel so as to obtain the two important wind profile parameters-the surface roughness length z(0) and the friction velocity u(*). Instead of using the wind speed profile, the turbulent intensity profile of the turbulent surface layer, which is measured with a single probe hot-wire anemometer, is used to calculate the surface roughness length z(0). Then, the calculated surface roughness length z(0) is substituted into the mean wind speed profile of the constant flux layer to calculate friction velocity u(*). From our results this method is better than the simple regression method using the wind speed profile, which has been widely used. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.