Numerical modelling of hydrodynamic and sediment-bacteria interaction processes in estuarine and coastal waters

A study has been undertaken to investigate and improve the representation and modelling of a range of various hydrodynamic, biochemical and sediment transport processes relating to the transport of enteric bacteria organisms in estuarine waters. In this study a relatively simple turbulence model was first further investigated to predict the complex three-dimensional flow structure in a flume with vegetation. The main purpose of this part of the study was to try and acquire accurate velocity profiles of complex flows without the need for a more advanced two-equation turbulence model, requiring values for a number of unknown coefficients and extra computing cost. The results showed that the simple two layer mixing length model was capable of giving more accurate complex velocity profile predictions, with the advantage of requiring limited coefficient data. Formulations developed through earlier studies for dynamic decay rates were then refined and included in the numerical model. The model predictions were tested against field data, with good agreement being obtained. Further refinements to the representation of the transport of bacteria through the flow field were included in the model by the novel addition of the interaction of bacteria with the sediments by partitioning the total bacteria into their free-living and attached phases using a dynamic partitioning ratio. This ratio was related to the suspended sediment concentrations. The novel method used in this study was to include the re-suspension and deposition of the absorbed bacteria with the sediments and this approach has been tested against analytical solutions for steady uniform flow conditions, and published field and experimental data. The model was then applied to the Severn Estuary. After calibration against available data sets the model was then run for different scenarios to investigate the effects of different hydro-environmental conditions on the bacteria distributions in the Severn Estuary. The model was finally used to investigate the impact of the proposed Cardiff-Weston tidal barrage on the hydrodynamic, the sediment transport and bacterial processes within the Severn Estuary. The results showed that the barrage would reduce the currents, as well as significantly reducing the suspended sediment concentrations and bacteria concentration levels in the estuary.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Numerical modelling of hydrodynamic and sediment-bacteria interaction processes in estuarine and coastal waters

A study has been undertaken to investigate and improve the representation and modelling of a range of various hydrodynamic, biochemical and sediment transport processes relating to the transport of enteric bacteria organisms in estuarine waters. In this study a relatively simple turbulence model was first further investigated to predict the complex three-dimensional flow structure in a flume with vegetation. The main purpose of this part of the study was to try and acquire accurate velocity profiles of complex flows without the need for a more advanced two-equation turbulence model, requiring values for a number of unknown coefficients and extra computing cost. The results showed that the simple two layer mixing length model was capable of giving more accurate complex velocity profile predictions, with the advantage of requiring limited coefficient data. Formulations developed through earlier studies for dynamic decay rates were then refined and included in the numerical model. The model predictions were tested against field data, with good agreement being obtained. Further refinements to the representation of the transport of bacteria through the flow field were included in the model by the novel addition of the interaction of bacteria with the sediments by partitioning the total bacteria into their free-living and attached phases using a dynamic partitioning ratio. This ratio was related to the suspended sediment concentrations. The novel method used in this study was to include the re-suspension and deposition of the absorbed bacteria with the sediments and this approach has been tested against analytical solutions for steady uniform flow conditions, and published field and experimental data. The model was then applied to the Severn Estuary. After calibration against available data sets the model was then run for different scenarios to investigate the effects of different hydro-environmental conditions on the bacteria distributions in the Severn Estuary. The model was finally used to investigate the impact of the proposed Cardiff-Weston tidal barrage on the hydrodynamic, the sediment transport and bacterial processes within the Severn Estuary. The results showed that the barrage would reduce the currents, as well as significantly reducing the suspended sediment concentrations and bacteria concentration levels in the estuary

Modelling study of transport time scales for a hyper-tidal estuary

This paper presents a study of two transport timescales (TTS), i.e., the residence time and exposure time, of a hyper-tidal estuary using a widely used numerical model. The numerical model was calibrated against field measured data for various tidal conditions. The model simulated current speeds and directions generally agreed well with the field data. The model was then further developed and applied to study the two transport timescales, namely the exposure time and residence time for the hyper-tidal Severn Estuary. The numerical model predictions showed that the inflow from the River Severn under high flow conditions reduced the residence and exposure times by 1.5 to 3.5% for different tidal ranges and tracer release times. For spring tide conditions, releasing a tracer at high water reduced the residence time and exposure time by 49.0% and 11.9%, respectively, compared to releasing the tracer at low water. For neap tide conditions, releasing at high water reduced the residence time and exposure time by 31.6% and 8.0%, respectively, compared to releasing the tracer at low water level. The return coefficient was found to be vary between 0.75 and 0.88 for the different tidal conditions, which indicates that the returning water effects for different tidal ranges and release times are all relatively high. For all flow and tide conditions, the exposure times were significantly greater than the residence times, which demonstrated that there was a high possibility for water and/or pollutants to re-enter the Severn Estuary after leaving it on an ebb tide. The fractions of water and/or pollutants re-entering the estuary for spring and neap tide conditions were found to be very high, giving 0.75–0.81 for neap tides, and 0.79–0.88 for spring tides. For both the spring and neap tides, the residence and exposure times were lower for high water level release. Spring tide conditions gave significantly lower residence and exposure times. The spatial distribution of exposure and residence times showed that the flow from the River Severn only had a local effect on the upstream part of the estuary, for both the residence and exposure time

Modelling the fate and transport of faecal bacteria in estuarine and coastal waters

Bangladesh, the eighth largest populous country in the world, has a significant rural population (70%), which is contributing to the energy demand of the country. The major portion in energy demand of rural households is biomass energy. With the improvement in GDP the rural energy demand would switch to more electricity intensive demand pathway. This paper focuses on a bottom up approach towards modelling the aggregated energy demand of rural households of Bangladesh form the year 2010 to 2050. The combination of four level scenarios of four variables (population, GDP electrification index, public energy conservation index) would forecast lowest, highest and optimum energy demand pathways for rural households of Bangladesh. The study not only considers the electricity demand of the rural household, but also it would render the opportunity to concentrate at the detail user end energy demands (e.g. liquid fuel, biomass etc.)

The Use of Transport Time Scales as Indicators of Pollution Persistence in a Macro-Tidal Setting

An understanding of water exchange processes is essential for assessing water quality management issues in coastal bays. This paper evaluates the impact of water exchange processes on pollution persistence in a macro-tidal semi-closed coastal bay through two transport time scales (TTS), namely residence time and exposure time. The numerical model was calibrated against field-measured data for various tidal conditions. Simulated current speeds and directions were shown to agree well with the field data. By considering different release scenarios of a conservative tracer by the refinement of an integrated hydrodynamic and solute transport model (the EFDC), the two TTS were used for interpreting the water exchange processes in a semi-closed system, and for describing the effects of advective and dispersive processes on the transport and fate of pollutants. The results indicate that the magnitudes of river inflows to the bay, tidal ranges, and tracer release times significantly influence the residence and exposure times. Return coefficients were shown to be variable, confirming the different effects of returning water for the different conditions that were studied. For the tested river flow magnitudes and tide conditions, the exposure times were generally higher than the residence times, but particularly so for neap tide conditions. The results, therefore, highlight the risks associated with pollutants leaving a specified domain on an outgoing tide but re-entering on subsequent incoming tides. The spatial distributions of the exposure and residence times across the model domain confirmed that for the case of Dublin Bay, river inputs have a potentially greater impact on water quality on the northern side of the bay

AC series arc fault detection based on RLC arc model and convolutional neural network

AC series arc faults in the power system can lead to electrical fires. However, the generalization performance of the determined detection method would be affected under unknown loads, as current features vary with loads. To address this issue, this paper presents a series arc fault detection method based on a high-frequency (HF) RLC arc model and one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1DCNN). By the current transformer used for receiving differential HF features (D-HFCT), current with complex features is firstly simplified and divided into different oscillation-signal types. Since the types of real D-HFCT data are limited, the RLC arc model is used to generate D-HFCT data with various types of oscillation features by adjusting load types, initial phase angles and Bernoulli-sequence frequencies. Then, the simulated data are adopted to train the 1DCNN model. Finally, the trained 1DCNN model can detect series arc faults under different types of real loads. Compared with the 1DCNN method driven by the limited types of real-current data, the presented method shows good generalization ability and achieves 99.33% average detection accuracy under nine types of unknown loads, which benefits from the training of simulated D-HFCT data with abundant HF oscillation features

Prediction of Vortex-Induced Vibration Response of Deep Sea Top-Tensioned Riser in Sheared Flow Considering Parametric Excitations

It is widely accepted that vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a major concern in the design of deep sea top-tensioned risers, especially when the riser is subjected to axial parametric excitations. An improved time domain prediction model was proposed in this paper. The prediction model was based on classical van der Pol wake oscillator models, and the impacts of the riser in-line vibration and vessel heave motion were considered. The finite element, Newmark-β and Newton‒Raphson methods were adopted to solve the coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. The entire numerical solution process was realised by a self-developed program based on MATLAB. Comparisons between the numerical calculation and the published experimental test were conducted in this paper. The in-line and cross-flow VIV responses of a real size top-tensioned riser in linear sheared flow were analysed. The effects of the vessel heave amplitude and frequency on the riser VIV were also studied. The results show that the vibration displacements of the riser are larger than the case without vessel heave motion. The vibration modes and frequencies of the riser are also changed due to the vessel heave motio

Prediction of Vortex-Induced Vibration Response of Deep Sea Top-Tensioned Riser in Sheared Flow Considering Parametric Excitations

It is widely accepted that vortex-induced vibration (VIV) is a major concern in the design of deep sea top-tensioned risers, especially when the riser is subjected to axial parametric excitations. An improved time domain prediction model was proposed in this paper. The prediction model was based on classical van der Pol wake oscillator models, and the impacts of the riser in-line vibration and vessel heave motion were considered. The finite element, Newmark-β and Newton‒Raphson methods were adopted to solve the coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. The entire numerical solution process was realised by a self-developed program based on MATLAB. Comparisons between the numerical calculation and the published experimental test were conducted in this paper. The in-line and cross-flow VIV responses of a real size top-tensioned riser in linear sheared flow were analysed. The effects of the vessel heave amplitude and frequency on the riser VIV were also studied. The results show that the vibration displacements of the riser are larger than the case without vessel heave motion. The vibration modes and frequencies of the riser are also changed due to the vessel heave motio