Modeling Coastal Hydrodynamics and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by Dr. Clint Dawson

Abstract

Coastal hydrodynamic models can be used to study many phenomena, including hurricane storm surges, sediment transport, contaminant transport, and circulation/wave coupling. Circulation in shallow coastal waters is complicated by highly irregular geometries, wetting and drying, and near-shore/continental shelf/deep water coupling, which results in flows exhibiting multiple scales. A number of finite element-based simulators have been developed over the past twenty years for modeling these complex flows. One of the more successful of these models is the ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation) Model. We will describe the evolution of this model and the application of it to hindcasting and forecasting storm surges along the southern Louisiana and Texas coasts. This model is based on a continuous Galerkin finite element formulation, which has its drawbacks. Recently, newly developed finite element methods such as the discontinuous Galerkin method have proved to be advantageous for these complex flows. We will also report on the development of a new, higher order discontinuous Galerkin-based hydrodynamic model under development at the University of Notre Dame and The University of Texas at Austin.