Numerical simulation of contaminant dispersion in estuary flows

Abstract

The paper examines in detail the dispersion of a passive contaminant in steady and oscillatory turbulent shear flow in a two-dimensional channel. The aim of this examination is to understand dispersion in estuaries. A new method of analysing and predicting concentration distributions has been developed from work of Sullivan (J. Fluid Mech. 49, 551-576 (1971)). A random walk technique is used, the contaminant being represented by a large number of marked particles whose paths are tracked as they move through the fluid. The technique seeks to model the physics of dispersion more realistically than the standard diffusion equation, and results from the simulation, with input based on data taken in the Mersey, show it to be a useful and versatile method of studying dispersion in oscillatory flows.