Optimization of the Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Model for the Ottawa River

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

An accurate and fast estimation of the current flow fields in rivers is crucial for sound planning of flooding prevention, environmental impact assessment, responding to environmental emergencies related to spill of hazardous substances, resource management, and assessment socio-economical impacts of climate change. With the advance in computing techniques, numerical modeling of river hydraulics has become feasible and popular. However, most of the existing models and modelling works that were remained at the academic level and/or were developed to achieve very specific engineering projects, such as the design of hydrotechnical structures and assessment of floodplain. Very limited river modelling projects have been escalated to the operational level in which high-quality current are being predicted continuously integrating the continuous fluctuations in the environmental conditions to respond to operational needs. And when river models are run operationally, there mostly one dimensional and used to assess water level. This research aims primarily to design and optimize a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the Ottawa River for operational applications to support emergency response in that water system. Specifically, the first objective of this project is the develop a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model for the Ottawa River from Chat Falls to Carillon to predict horizontal current field with high special resolution to capture complex flow patterns, such as flow recirculation and dispersion. The second objective is to optimize the computational costs without lowering the prediction accuracy, based on a comprehensive analysis of the influence of local mesh resolution on the calculated water level, current velocity, and secondary flows, etc. The developed model will be carefully calibrated and validated against observational data. The computational mesh of the developed model will be highly optimized and this optimization can significantly increase the model efficiency without obviously impacting the model accuracy. This research includes preparing a digital elevation model based on height, Open Street, and navigational maps with the assistance of ArcGIS, determining the computational area, generating various meshes using different setting parameters in BlueKenue, conducting mesh sensitivity analyses and performing simulations using TELEMAC, calibrating the models, and preparing a technical report to describe the study and its findings.