Experiment in COSMO

By. Anders

During the summer of 2010 I joined Kanda Lab on a joint JSPS/NSF fellowship.  My goal was to conduct turbulence experiments in the Comprehensive Outdoor Scale MOdel (COSMO) for urban climate studies, which is the only facility of its kind in the world.  I studied the thermal boundary layer structure on various urban surfaces in COSMO in order to get a better understanding of convective heat transfer between buildings and the urban atmosphere.  During the approximately two month program three experimental campaigns were carried out in COSMO over a one month period in July, 2010.  Measurements were made on opposite walls of two neighboring building units in order to capture two types of flow conditions.  The purpose of the first campaign was to setup the experiment and obtain a sample dataset that was used to ensure the correct operation of all equipment and test the viability of the experimental setup.  During the second and third campaigns data were collected from both building walls for a period of several hours.

 The experiment would not have been possible without the help of the members in Kanda lab, and I was very glad to be working with them.  Onomura-san had already planned a similar experiment on a full scale building so I applied her experimental setup to my experiment in COSMO.  Onomura-san came with me to COSMO for every experiment and the experiment could not have been successful without her hard work and positive attitude.  Inagaki-san, Takimoto-san, Nakayoshi-san, Kumemura-san and Makabe-san all helped to set up the experiment which was a lot of work and took a full day to complete.  Below are some pictures from the experiment:

Setting up the sonic anemometers with Inagaki-san.

Onomin-san, Kumemura-san, Makabe-san and Nakayoshi-san all helped
to set up the experiment.

Onomura-san enjoys a rest after a long day of work.

I am discussing the experiment with Onomura-san while wearing a funny straw hat.

The final experimental setup in COSMO.

Overall the experiment was a success and produced some interesting results.  It also helped to identify interesting aspects to study in future experiments.  I have really enjoyed my trip to Japan and working in Kanda Lab, everyone here is very friendly and I fell very welcome.  I hope I can come back to Japan again in the future!