Mathematical simulation of sediment and radionuclide transport in estuaries

Technical Report · Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 EST 1982

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6530416· OSTI ID:6530416

Onishi, Y; Trent, D S

The finite element model LFESCOT (Flow, Energy, Salinity, Sediment and Contaminant Transport Model) was synthesized under this study to simulate radionuclide transport in estuaries to obtain accurate radionuclide distributions which are affected by these factors: time variance, three-dimensional flow, temperature, salinity, and sediments. Because sediment transport and radionuclide adsorption/desorption depend strongly on sizes or types of sediments, FLESCOT simulates sediment and a sediment-sorbed radionuclide for the total of three sediment-size fractions (or sediment types) of both cohesive and noncohesive sediments. It also calculates changes of estuarine bed conditions, including bed elevation changes due to sediment erosion/deposition, and three-dimensional distributions of three bed sediment sizes and sediment-sorbed radionuclides within the bed. Although the model was synthesized for radionuclide transport, it is general enough to also handle other contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides, or toxic chemicals. The model was checked for its capability for flow, water surface elevation change, salinity, sediment and radionuclide transport under various simple conditions first, confirming the general validity of the model's computational schemes. These tests also revealed that FLESCOT can use large aspect ratios of computational cells, which are necessary in handling long estuarine study areas. After these simple tests, FLESCOT was applied to the Hudson River estuary between Chelsea and the mouth of the river to examine how well the model can predict radionuclide transport through simulating tidally influenced three-dimensional flow, salinity, sediment and radionuclide movements with their interactions.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6530416
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-2423; PNL-4109; ON: DE83004572
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
CESIUM 137
RADIOECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
COMPUTER CODES
F CODES
ESTUARIES
RADIONUCLIDE MIGRATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SEDIMENTS
CLAYS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FIELD TESTS
HUDSON RIVER
INDIAN POINT-1 REACTOR
INDIAN POINT-2 REACTOR
SALINITY
SAND
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TIME DEPENDENCE
VALIDATION
WATER QUALITY
WIND
ALKALI METAL ISOTOPES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CESIUM ISOTOPES
DATA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENRICHED URANIUM REACTORS
ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
INFORMATION
ISOTOPES
MASS TRANSFER
NUCLEI
NUMERICAL DATA
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
POWER REACTORS
PWR TYPE REACTORS
RADIOISOTOPES
REACTORS
RIVERS
STREAMS
SURFACE WATERS
TESTING
THERMAL REACTORS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
520300* - Environment
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220502 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Environmental Aspects- Radioactive Effluents
220503 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Environmental Aspects- Chemical & Thermal Effluents