Numerical Study of Hydrodynamic and Solute Transport with Discontinuous Flows in Coastal Water

This paper aimed to develop a depth-averaged explicit model for flow and pollutant transport in coastal waters based on the shallow water equations and the mass advection-diffusion equation. The proposed model was discretized using the finite volume method (FVM) with triangular cells. Then, it applied Roe’s approximate Riemann solution to compute the water momentum flux on the grid interfaces. This model enabled the higher accuracy in capturing the dry-wet moving fronts (discontinuous problems for flow and solute). The high-resolution scheme was evaluated to solve the advection and diffusion terms for mass transport. The model was verified by comparing the predictions of analytical solutions, laboratory tests, and other simulations for Gironde estuary with good computational accuracy. The developed model was also used to calculate the circulation and the motion of chemical oxygen demand (COD) pollutants from the sewage outfalls in the Zhuanghe coastal water with dry and wet moving boundaries. The research results showed that the residual current directions of spring and neap tides were basically the same in the Zhuanghe coastal water. However, the tide residual current of spring tide was slightly greater than that of the neap tide. In addition, there were tide residual currents from the northeast to the southwest in nearshore water and from the southwest to the northeast outside the banks, respectively. The tidal flows in the alongshore direction were strong, resulting in highly spread concentration distributions. In particular, the COD concentration reached some parts of the southern water. It could be seen that the excessive pollutant discharge from the sewage outfalls located at Zhuanghe district would cause serious pollution in aquaculture water near Shicheng island.