Tidal Flow and Transport Modeling Using ULTIMATE QUICKEST Scheme

Abstract

The paper describes an accurate numerical scheme for simulating two-dimensional solute transport in coastal and estuarine waters. The operator-splitting algorithm and a conventional discretization (i.e., no splitting) algorithm have been used to solve the solute transport (or advective-diffusion) equation. To avoid the occurrence of numerical oscillations, the ULTIMATE algorithm and the third-order accurate QUICKEST scheme have been used to represent the advective terms in the equation. A boundary-fitted curvilinear coordinate system has also been deployed to obtain a more accurate solution of the tidal currents. The model has been verified for a series of numerical tests, and has been applied to predict the water quality constituent and sediment transport fluxes in the Humber Estuary, U.K.