Similarity scaling of surface-released smoke plumes

Concentration fluctuation data from surface-layer released smoke plumes have been investigated with the purpose of finding suitable scaling parameters for the corresponding two-particle, relative diffusion process. Dispersion properties have been measured at downwind ranges between 0.1 and 1 km from a continuous, neutrally buoyant ground level source. A combination of SF6 and chemical smoke (aerosols) was used as tracer. Instantaneous crosswind concentration profiles of high temporal (up to 55 Hz) and spatial resolution (down to 0.375 m) were obtained from aerosol-backscatter Lidar detection in combination with simultaneous gas chromatograph (SF6) reference measurements. The database includes detailed crosswind concentration fluctuation measurements. Each experiment, typically of 1/2-hour duration, contains plume mean and variance concentration profiles, intermittency profiles and exceedence and duration statistics. The diffusion experiments were accompanied by detailed in-situ micrometeorological mean and turbulence measurements. In this paper, a new distance-neighbour function for surface-released smoke plumes is proposed, accompanied by experimental evidence in its support. The new distance-neighbour function is found to scale with the surface-layer friction velocity, and not with the inertial subrange dissipation rate, over the range of distance-neighbour separations considered.