The Influence of Dust Devils on Martian Water Vapour Transport

• Author / Creator

  Chen, Kuan-Chih

• A laboratory vortex generator was designed and fabricated to reproduce the behavior of this complex swirling flow. The vortex generator design was based on the results of computational fluid dynamics to optimize the performance, to reduce the cost, and to ensure kinematic similarity with atmospheric vortices. Stereo particle image velocimetry was used to investigate the flow velocity field generated by the instrument. In addition, laboratory scaled water vapour transport experiments were conducted, using a series of 128 solid-state humidity/temperature sensors. The results were used for successful validation of the numerical simulations. The study confirmed the expected effect that dust devils did indeed enhance mass transport. It was concluded that the radial Reynolds number was the most relevant scaling factor for this phenomenon. A numerical model with Martian conditions was then calculated to estimate the local water vapour transport rate from the Martian regolith with the presence of dust devil-like flows.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Vortex generators
  • Dust devils
  • Mars (Planet)--Water

• Graduation date

  Spring 2011

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3HW3M

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.