Integrated modelling studies of solute transport in river basin systems

Osei-Twumasi, Anthony 2010. Integrated modelling studies of solute transport in river basin systems. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Surface water and groundwater systems are linked dynamically in reality as the one generally impacts directly on the other. Traditionally, however, these two water bodies have more often than not been treated as different entities by water managers and other professionals. The issue of the compartmentality of these two resources is the main focus of the study described herein. In this study, an existing 1D-2D hydro-environmental surface water model that includes a groundwater model (DIVAST-SG) has been extended to 2-D and refined through testing against three laboratory studies. A surface water-groundwater system model using foam to replicate groundwater material was created in the laboratory and the results of the hydrodynamic processes (i.e. water elevations and flowpaths) were compared with the numerical model predictions. On the whole the comparisons showed good agreement. However, dye studies for replicating pollutant transport did not show such good agreement and this discrepancy was thought to be due to a number of reasons. In the second series of studies, the groundwater material was then replaced with the more traditional sand embankment and again results for both hydrodynamic and solute transport processes (by way of dye studies) from the laboratory set up were compared with the numerical predictions which were in almost perfect agreement. In the same tidal basin, a Severn Estuary model was then designed and set up. Although there were differences from the prototype owing to space and scaling difficulties, the results showed good agreement for both tidal amplitudes and tidal currents with the predictions from the numerical model and particularly the tidal amplitudes were found to compare favourably with field studies. Tracer results from the physical model also showed consistency with simulations from previous researchers in the main estuary. Overall, the purpose of this study, which was to investigate the manner in which flow and solute (conservative tracer) fluxes interacted between surface and sub-surface flows, for simulated riverine and tidal conditions, has been achieved. These experiments and the corresponding datasets are thought to be unique.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Engineering
Subjects:	T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
ISBN:	9781303218309
Funders:	NUFFIC, Kumasi Polytechnic, Ghana
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/54991

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