Accuracy of Sediment Flux Computations in Tidally Driven Simulations
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 5
Abstract
Tidal asymmetry, generated by nonlinear shallow water processes, controls to a large extent the long-term fate of noncohesive sediments in estuaries and lagoons. Since the accurate reproduction of this asymmetry is still a challenge for hydrodynamic models, it is important to quantify the effect of errors in the representation of tidal asymmetry on tidally averaged sediment fluxes. The effect of the accuracy in the amplitude and phase in the tidal velocity on the errors in the evaluation of residual sediment transport was analyzed analytically. Results show that errors of the order of 20% in velocity amplitude can lead to sediment transport errors on the order of 100%. Phase errors lead to smaller, but non-negligible, errors in sediment transport. Simple expressions to estimate these errors are provided.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Programa Operacional “Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovação” and FEDER, project “Sand transport in surface waters: An uncertainty analysis.” The writer is grateful to Dr. A. Oliveira, Dr. Demirbilek, and two anonymous reviewers for critical reviews of the manuscript and useful suggestions.
References
Ackers, P., and White, W. R. (1973). “Sediment transport: New approach and analysis.” J. Hydr. Div., 99(11), 2041–2060.
Aldridge, J. N. (1997). “Hydrodynamic model predictions of tidal asymmetry and observed sediment transport paths in Morecambe Bay.” Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci., 44(1), 39–56.
ASCE Task Committee of Computational Modeling of Sediment Transport Processes. (2004). “Computational modeling of sediment transport processes.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 130(7), 597–598.
Camenen, B., and Larroudé, P. (2003). “Comparison of sediment transport formulae for the coastal environment.” Coastal Eng., 48(2), 111–132.
Eidsvik, K. J. (2004). “Some contributions to the uncertainty of sediment transport predictions.” Cont. Shelf Res., 24(6), 739–754.
Engelund, F., and Hansen, F. (1967). A monograph of sediment transport in alluvial channels, Teknisk Forlag, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Fortunato, A. B., and Oliveira, A. (2004). “A modeling system for tidally driven long-term morphodynamics.” J. Hydraul. Res., 42(4), 426–434.
Fortunato, A. B., and Oliveira, A. (2005). “Influence of intertidal flats on tidal asymmetry.” J. Coastal Res., 21(5), 1062–1067.
Friedrichs, C. T., and Aubrey, D. G. (1988). “Nonlinear tidal distortion in shallow well-mixed estuaries: A synthesis.” Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci., 27(5), 521–545.
Grenier, R. R., Luettich, R. A., and Westerink, J. J. (1995). “A comparison of the non-linear frictional characteristics of two-dimensional and three-dimensional models of a shallow water embayment.” J. Geophys. Res., 100(C7), 13719–13735.
Hall, P., and Davies, A. M. (2005). “The influence of sampling frequency, nonlinear interaction, and frictional effects upon the accuracy of the harmonic analysis of tidal simulations.” Appl. Math. Model., 29(6), 533–552.
Meyer-Peter, E., and Muller, R. (1948). “Formulas for bed-load transport.” Proc., 3rd Meeting IAHR, Stockholm, Sweden, 39–64.
Oliveira, A., Fortunato, A. B., and Rego, J. (2006). “Effect of morphological changes on the hydrodynamics and flushing properties of the Óbidos Lagoon (Portugal).” Cont. Shelf Res., 26(8), 917–942.
Pinto, L., Fortunato, A. B., and Freire, P. (2006). “Sensitivity analysis of noncohesive sediment transport formulae.” Cont. Shelf Res., 26(15), 1826–1839.
Sutherland, J., Peet, A. H., and Soulsby, R. L. (2004). “Evaluating the performance of morphological models.” Coastal Eng., 51(8–9), 917–939.
van Rijn, L. C. (1984a). “Sediment transport. Part I: Bed load transport.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 110(10), 1431–1456.
van Rijn, L. C. (1984b). “Sediment transport. Part II: Suspended load transport.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 110(11), 1613–1641.
van Rijn, L. C. (1984c). “Sediment transport. Part III: Bed forms and alluvial roughness.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 110(12), 1733–1754.
van Rijn, L. C. (1990). “Handbook of sediment transport by currents and waves.” Rep. No. H461, Delft Hydraulics, Delft, The Netherlands.
van Rijn, L. C., Walstra, D. J. R., Grasmeijer, B., Sutherland, J., Pan, S., and Sierra, J. P. (2003). “The predictability of cross-shore bed evolution of sandy beaches at the time scale of storms and seasons using process-based profile models.” Coastal Eng., 47(3), 295–327.
Walters, R. A., and Werner, F. E. (1991). “Nonlinear generation of overtides, compound tides, and residuals.” Tidal hydrodynamics, B. B. Parker, ed., Wiley, New York, 298–320.
Westerink, J. J. (1984). “A frequency domain finite element model for tidal circulation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 3, 2005
Accepted: Nov 28, 2005
Published online: Sep 1, 2007
Published in print: Sep 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.