MASS BALANCE IN EULERIAN-LAGRANGIAN TRANSPORT SIMULATIONS IN ESTUARIES

Transport simulations of dissolved substances in coastal areas are routinely carried out in water quality studies. However, mass conservation remains a concern, as the accumulation of mass errors over time may jeopardize the accuracy of the results. This paper investigates the generation of flow mass errors in finite-element shallow water models and the effect of these errors in the mass conservation of Eulerian-Lagrangian transport simulations. Flow mass errors are shown to be similar for several primitive and wave equation formulations. These errors occur primarily in areas of steep bathymetric gradients and near complex boundaries. Forcing Eulerian-Lagrangian transport simulations with nonconservative flow fields generates important mass imbalances, which can be mitigated by refining the flow grid. Comparatively, refining the transport grid only reduces marginally the mass errors.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/8672558
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The first writer was partially sponsored by Fundacao para a Ciencie e a Tecnologia (Portugal), under Grant BD-2775/93. The first two writers were also sponsored by the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering under Project 604/11/13093. The third writer was supported by the Office of Naval Research, Grant N00014-96-1-0893.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Oliveira, A B
  • Fortunato, A B
  • Baptista, A N
• Publication Date: 2000-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 605-614
• Serial:
  • Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
  • Volume: 126
  • Issue Number: 8
  • Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
  • ISSN: 0733-9429
  • Serial URL: https://ascelibrary.org/journal/jhend8

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bathymetry; Conservation of mass and energy; Errors; Estuaries; Finite element method; Flow fields; Grids (Coordinates); Hydraulics; Mathematical models; Simulation; Time series; Water quality; Wave equations
• Uncontrolled Terms: Eulerian Lagrangian methods
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Marine Transportation; I26: Water Run-off - Freeze-thaw;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00797206
• Record Type: Publication
• Contract Numbers: 59890200, BD-2775/93, 604/11/13093
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 7 2000 12:00AM