Influences of Weather Conditions and Daily Repeated Upstream Releases on Temperature Distributions in a River-Reservoir System
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 23, Issue 1
Abstract
A calibrated three-dimensional environmental fluid dynamics code model was applied to simulate temperature distributions under various hypothetical weather conditions and daily repeated large releases (DRLRs) from the upstream boundary in a river-reservoir system in Alabama. Both the duration of DRLRs and weather conditions affect and control the formation and spread of density currents along channel bottom at downstream locations, which affect the bottom-layer water temperatures. The daily drop rates of bottom-layer temperature at the Gorgas upstream monitoring station (GOUS) under 6-h DRLRs are 0.3, 0.5, and for assumed air temperature drop lasting 2, 4, and 6 days, respectively. The average bottom-layer temperature at the river intake under 4-h DRLRs is 2.3°C lower than one under 2-h DRLRs and only 1.1°C higher than one under 6-h DRLRs in the whole simulation period. The daily drop rate and dropping duration of bottom-layer temperature are almost the same for 2-, 4-, and 6-h DRLRs because of the same drop and rise pattern for weather conditions. The maximum differences between the stationary weather scenario and the 11-day drop-rise weather scenario range from 3.1 to 4.2°C under different release durations. The lower bottom-layer temperatures at GOUS and the river intake are primarily because of the lower air temperatures and solar radiation during the 11 days and less affected by the release pattern. Bottom-layer temperature dynamics in the riverine portion are more affected by flow momentum of DRLRs and, in the deeper reservoir portion, primarily controlled by weather conditions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their thanks to Mr. Jonathan B. Ponstein, P.E., and Mr. Thomas B. Weems for providing necessary observation data and Dr. Janesh Devkota for the EFDC model development and calibration for the BRRS. The author Gang Chen wishes to express his gratitude to the Chinese Scholarship Council for financial support pursuing his graduate study at Auburn University.
References
Alavian, V., and Ostrowski, P., Jr. (1992). “Use of density current to modify thermal structure of TVA reservoirs.” J. Hydraul. Eng., 688–706.
Brady, D. K., Graves, W. L., and Geyer, J. C. (1969). “Surface heat exchange at power plant cooling lakes.”, Edison Electric Institute, New York.
Caissie, D. (2006). “The thermal regime of rivers: A review.” Freshwater Biol., 51(8), 1389–1406.
Chapra, S. C. (1997). Surface water-quality modeling, McGraw-Hill, New York, 844.
Chen, G. (2016). “Understanding unsteady flow dynamics, temperature, and dye distributions of density currents in a river-reservoir system under different upstream releases and meteorological scenarios.” Ph.D. dissertation, Auburn Univ., Auburn, AL.
Chen, G., and Fang, X. (2015a). “Accuracy of hourly water temperatures in rivers calculated from air temperatures.” Water, 7(3), 1068–1087.
Chen, G., and Fang, X. (2015b). “Sensitivity analysis of flow and temperature distributions of density currents in a river-reservoir system under upstream releases with different durations.” Water, 7(11), 6244–6268.
Chen, G., Fang, X., and Devkota, J. (2016a). “Understanding flow dynamics and density currents in a river-reservoir system under upstream reservoir releases.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 61(13), 2411–2426.
Chen, G., Fang, X., and Fan, H. (2016b). “Estimating hourly water temperatures in rivers using modified sine and sinusoidal wave functions.” J. Hydrol. Eng., 05016023.
Cole, T. M., and Wells, S. A. (2010). “CE-QUAL-W2: A two-dimensional, laerally averaged, hydrodynamic and water quality model, version 3.6 user manual.”, U.S. Army Engineering and Research Development Center, Vicksburg, MS.
Craig, P. M. (2015). “User’s manual for EFDC_Explorer 7.3: A pre/post processor for the environmental fluid dynamics code.” Dynamic Solutions-International, LLC, Edmonds, WA.
Devkota, J., and Fang, X. (2015). “Numerical simulation of flow dynamics in a tidal river under various upstream hydrologic conditions.” Hydrol. Sci. J., 60(10), 1666–1689.
Edinger, J. E., Brady, D. K., and Geyer, J. C. (1974). “Heat exchange and transport in the environment.”, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore.
Fang, X., Weems, T. B., Devkota, J., and Chen, G. (2013). “Watershed modeling, water balance analysis, three-dimensional flow and thermal discharge modeling for the William C. Gorgas Plant.” Dept. of Civil Engineering, Auburn, AL, 124.
Farrell, G. J., and Stefan, H. G. (1989). “Two-layer analysis of a plunging density-current in a diverging horizontal channel.” J. Hydraul. Res., 27(1), 35–47.
Hamrick, J. M. (1992). A three-dimensional environmental fluid dynamics computer code: Theoretical and computational aspects, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, 63.
Jeong, S., Yeon, K., Hur, Y., and Oh, K. (2010). “Salinity intrusion characteristics analysis using EFDC model in the downstream of Geum River.” J. Environ. Sci., 22(6), 934–939.
Johnson, A. C., et al. (2009). “The British river of the future: How climate change and human activity might affect two contrasting river ecosystems in England.” Sci. Total Environ., 407(17), 4787–4798.
Kim, C.-K., and Park, K. (2012). “A modeling study of water and salt exchange for a micro-tidal, stratified northern Gulf of Mexico estuary.” J. Mar. Syst., 96–97, 103–115.
Kothandaraman, V., and Evans, R. L. (1972). Use of air-water relationships for predicting water temperature, Illinois State Water Survey, Champaign, IL.
Mellor, G. L., and Yamada, T. (1982). “Development of a turbulence closure model for geophysical fluid problems.” Rev. Geophys. Space Phys., 20(4), 851–875.
Morse, W. L. (1972). “Steam temperature prediction under reduced flow.” J. Hydraul. Div., 98(6), 1031–1047.
Pilgrim, J. M., Fang, X., and Stefan, H. G. (1998). “Stream temperature correlations with air temperatures in Minnesota: Implications for climate warming.” J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 34(5), 1109–1121.
Railsback, S. (1997). “Design guidance for short-term control of flow releases for temperature management.”, Pacific Gas and Electric, San Ramon, CA.
Reicosky, D., Winkelman, L., Baker, J., and Baker, D. (1989). “Accuracy of hourly air temperatures calculated from daily minima and maxima.” Agric. For. Meteorol., 46(3), 193–209.
Shen, J., and Lin, J. (2006). “Modeling study of the influences of tide and stratification on age of water in the tidal James River.” Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci., 68(1–2), 101–112.
Sinokrot, B. A., and Gulliver, J. S. (2000). “In-stream flow impact on river water temperatures.” J. Hydraul. Res., 38(5), 339–349.
Thomann, R. V., and Mueller, J. A. (1987). Principles of surface water quality modeling and control, Vol. xii, Harper & Row, New York, 644.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 11, 2016
Accepted: Jul 12, 2017
Published online: Nov 13, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Apr 13, 2018
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.