Development and Verification of a Comprehensive Community Model for Physical Processes in the Nearshore Ocean

Abstract

Our goal is to develop a comprehensive, verified community model that predicts nearshore hydrodynamics, sediment transport, and seabed morphology changes given offshore wave conditions and initial bathymetry. The basic scientific objective is to synthesize understanding of physical processes in the nearshore ocean by developing a model for waves and resulting radiation stresses and mass fluxes over evolving coastal bathymetry and currents wave-induced circulation sediment transport and morphological evolution. An additional objective is to test model components and the full community model with field. Our approach is to develop a tightly-coupled system of individual model components, or modules. We are utilizing a framework where wave processes are distinguished from wave-averaged processes by means of a suitable time average. The resulting set of modules and their functions are: 1. wave module - calculation of second- and third-moment wave properties, including frequency-directional spectra, radiation stresses, and wave skewness and asymmetry 2. circulation module - calculation of wave-driven circulation and turbulence levels 3. seabed module - calculation of local sediment fluxes and seabed changes resulting from flux divergences, and characterization of bed geometry.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2002
Accession Number
ADA480662

Entities

People

  • Daniel M. Hanes
  • George Mellor
  • H. T. Ozkan-haller
  • James M. Kaihatu
  • James T Kirby
  • John S. Allen
  • R. T. Guza
  • Steve Elgar
  • Thomas G. Drake
  • Thomas H. Herbers

Organizations

  • University of Delaware

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundary Layer
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Communities
  • Continental Shelves
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Frequency
  • Layers
  • North Carolina
  • Seabed
  • Secondary Waves
  • Sedimentation
  • Suspended Sediments
  • Three Dimensional
  • Verification
  • Wave Power
  • Wave Propagation

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.