Numerical simulation of winds behaviour in Macón site

GONZALEZ, E.; SACCO, C.; VRECH, R.; RENZI, V.; GARCÍA LAMBAS, D.; RECABARREN, P.

Boletín de la Asociación Argentina de Astronomía

Asociación Argentina de Astronomía

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2009 vol. 52 p. 277 - 280

1669-9521

The set up of a large telescope requires a previous comprehensive study of the local meteorological and seeing conditions. The south ridge of mount Macón, province of Salta, Argentina has been studied for more than a year and good seeing conditions have been found. However, strong wind condi- tions drastically affect the selection of the best place where a large telescope may be installed. In the present work, a CFD (Computed Flow Dynamic) study is performed to analyze the wind speed distribution and flow pattern over the site. A GPS based high resolution topographical model was de- veloped. The numerical formulation is a large eddy simulation (LES) of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations approximated using the finite element method and results are confirmed with the experimental measure- ments.