Accurate Wind Characterization in Complex Terrain Using the Immersed Boundary Method

This paper describes an immersed boundary method (IBM) that facilitates the explicit resolution of complex terrain within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Two different interpolation methods, trilinear and inverse distance weighting, are used at the core of the IBM algorithm. Functional aspects of the algorithm's implementation and the accuracy of results are considered. Simulations of flow over a three-dimensional hill with shallow terrain slopes are preformed with both WRF's native terrain-following coordinate and with both IB methods. Comparisons of flow fields from the three simulations show excellent agreement, indicating that both IB methods produce accurate results. However, when ease of implementation is considered, inverse distance weighting is superior. Furthermore, inverse distance weighting is shown to be more adept at handling highly complex urban terrain, where the trilinear interpolation algorithm breaks down. This capability is demonstrated by using the inverse distance weighting core of the IBM to model atmospheric flow in downtown Oklahoma City