High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada

Lin, Yuehua; Fissel, David B.

doi:10.3390/jmse2010209

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High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada

Yuehua Lin

^* and

David B. Fissel

ASL Environmental Sciences Inc., #1-6703 Rajpur Place, Victoria, British Columbia, V8M 1Z5, Canada

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2014, 2(1), 209-225; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse2010209

Received: 10 December 2013 / Revised: 1 February 2014 / Accepted: 19 February 2014 / Published: 19 March 2014

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 13th Estuarine and Coastal Modeling Conference)

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Abstract

The 3-D unstructured-grid, Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) was used to simulate the flows in Discovery Passage including the adjoining Lower Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada. Challenges in the studies include the strong tidal currents (e.g., up to 7.8 m/s in Seymour Narrows) and tailrace discharges, small-scale topographic features and steep bottom slopes, and stratification affected by the Campbell River freshwater discharges. Two applications of high resolution 3-D FVCOM modeling were conducted. One is for the Lower Campbell River extending upstream as far as the John Hart Hydroelectric dam. The horizontal resolution varies from 0.27 m to 32 m in the unstructured triangular mesh to resolve the tailrace flow. The bottom elevation decreases ~14 m within the distance of ~1.4 km along the river. This pioneering FVCOM river modeling demonstrated a very good performance in simulating the river flow structures. The second application is to compute ocean currents immediately above the seabed along the present underwater electrical cable crossing routes across Discovery Passage. Higher resolution was used near the bottom with inter-layer spacing ranging from 0.125 to 0.0005 of total water depth. The model behaves very well in simulating the strong tidal currents in the area at high resolution in both the horizontal and vertical. One year maximum near bottom tidal current along the routes was then analyzed using the model results. View Full-Text

Keywords: Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM); river; numerical modeling; Discovery Passage; high resolution

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Lin, Y.; Fissel, D.B. High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2014, 2, 209-225. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse2010209

AMA Style

Lin Y, Fissel DB. High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2014; 2(1):209-225. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse2010209

Chicago/Turabian Style

Lin, Yuehua, and David B. Fissel. 2014. "High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada" Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2, no. 1: 209-225. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse2010209

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High Resolution 3-D Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Modeling in Lower Campbell River and Discovery Passage, British Columbia, Canada

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