NUMERICAL MODELING OF ATMOSPHERIC BOUNDARIES

The half cell method, a practical method of computing the flow pattern on an atmospheric boundary where both inflow and outflow conditions can occur, is described. The method is useful when most of the boundary conditions, even the velocity and pressure, are given in terms of gradients. The treatment of the velocity and pressure boundaries for the discrete momentum and continuity equations is described for the SIMPLE family of methods. As an example, the flow of air about a directly air-cooled heat exchanger is discussed. The method makes it possible to restrict the computational domain for this problem to manageable limits.