Open AccessMODIFIED FINITE ELEMENT TRANSPORT MODEL, FETRA, FOR SEDIMENT AND RAOIONUCLIDE MIGRATION IN OPEN COASTAL WATERS
Author(s) -
Not Given Author
Publication year - 1979
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1074139
Subject(s) - sediment , sediment transport , finite element method , radionuclide , geology , environmental science , hydrology (agriculture) , quadratic equation , oceanography , geotechnical engineering , geomorphology , engineering , mathematics , physics , geometry , structural engineering , quantum mechanics
The finite element model, FETRA, simulates transport of sediment and radionuclides (and other contaminants, such as heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxic substances) in surface water bodies. The model is an unsteady, two-dimensional (longitudinal and lateral} model which consists of the following three submodels coupled to include sediment-contaminant interactions: 1) sediment transport submodel, 2} dissolved contaminant transport submodel, and 3) particulate contaminant (contaminant adsorbed by sediment) transport submodel. Under the current phase of the study, FETRA was modified to include sediment-wave interaction in order to extend the applicability of the model to coastal zones and large lakes (e.g., the Great Lakes) where wave actions can be one of the dominant mechanisms to transport sediment and toxic contaminant. FETRA was further modified to handle both linear and quadratic approximations to velocity and depth distributions in order to be compatible with various finite element hydrodynamic models (e.g., RMA II and CAFE) which supply hydrodynamic input data to FETRA. The next step is to apply FETRA to coastal zones to simulate transport of sediment and radionuclides with their interactions in order to test and verify the model under marine and large lacustrine environments