Dredging for dilution: A simulation based case study in a Tidal River.

A 2-D hydrodynamic finite element model with a Lagrangian particle module is used to investigate the effects of dredging on the hydrodynamics and the horizontal dilution of pollutant particles originating from a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) in tidal Oyster River in New Hampshire, USA. The mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 167; pp. 85 - 99
Main Authors: Bilgili, Ata, Proehl, Jeffrey A., Swift, M. Robinson
Format: Case Study
Published: Academic Press Inc. Feb2016
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        03014797
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      dt: Feb2016
      vid: 167
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      pub: Academic Press Inc.
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        111976838
        10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.11.008
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        atl: Dredging for dilution: A simulation based case study in a Tidal River.
      aug:
        au:
          Bilgili, Ata
          Proehl, Jeffrey A.
          Swift, M. Robinson
        affil:
          Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul 34940, Turkey
          JAProehl Consulting, Cornish, NH 03745, USA
          University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
      su:
        Pollutants
        Finite element method
        Lagrangian functions
        Hydrodynamics
        Wastewater treatment
        Random walks
      sug:
        subj:
          Pollutants
          Sewage Treatment Facilities
          Finite element method
          Lagrangian functions
          Hydrodynamics
          Wastewater treatment
          Random walks
      keyword:
        Dilution
        Dredging
        Lagrangian particle tracking
        Numerical modeling
        Pollutant
        Tides
        Waste water
        Dilution
        Dredging
        Lagrangian particle tracking
        Numerical modeling
        Pollutant
        Tides
        Waste water
      ab: A 2-D hydrodynamic finite element model with a Lagrangian particle module is used to investigate the effects of dredging on the hydrodynamics and the horizontal dilution of pollutant particles originating from a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) in tidal Oyster River in New Hampshire, USA. The model is driven by the semi-diurnal (M 2 ) tidal component and includes the effect of flooding and drying of riverine mud flats. The particle tracking method consists of tidal advection plus a horizontal random walk model of sub-grid scale turbulent processes. Our approach is to perform continuous pollutant particle releases from the outfall, simulating three different scenarios: a base-case representing the present conditions and two different dredged channel/outfall location configurations. Hydrodynamics are investigated in an Eulerian framework and Lagrangian particle dilution improvement ratios are calculated for all cases. Results show that the simulated hydrodynamics are consistent with observed conditions. Eulerian and Lagrangian residuals predict an outward path suggesting flushing of pollutants on longer (>M 2 ) time scales. Simulated dilution maps show that, in addition to dredging, the relocation of the WWTF outfall into the dredged main channel is required for increased dilution performance. The methodology presented here can be applied to similar managerial problems in all similar systems worldwide with relatively little effort, with the combination of Lagrangian and Eulerian methods working together towards a better solution. The statistical significance brought into methodology, by using a large number of particles (16000 in this case), is to be emphasized, especially with the growing number of networked parallel computer clusters worldwide. This paper improves on the study presented in Bilgili et al., 2006b, by adding an Eulerian analysis.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Case Study
      src: R
    language: English
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