Employing Taylor and Heisenberg subfilter viscosities to simulate turbulent statistics in LES models

A turbulent subfilter viscosity for Large Eddy Simulation (LES) based on the Taylor statistical diffusion theory is proposed. This viscosity is described in terms of a velocity variance and a time scale, both associated to the inertial subrange. This new subfilter viscosity contains a cutoff wavenumber k c , presenting an identical form (differing by a constant) to the Heisenberg subfilter viscosity. Therefore, both subfilter viscosities are described in terms of a sharp division between large and small wavenumbers of a turbulent flow and, henceforth, Taylor and Heisenberg subfilter viscosities are in agreement with the sharp Fourier filtering operation, frequently employed in LES models. Turbulent statistics of different orders, generated from atmospheric boundary layer simulations employing both Taylor and Heisenberg subfilter viscosities have been compared with observations and results provided by other simulations. The comparison shows that the LES model utilizing the approaches of Taylor and Heisenberg reproduces these turbulent statistics correctly in different vertical regions of a planetary convective boundary layer (CBL).