Numerical Modelling of Sand Wave Fields in the North Sea using Delft3D FM
Numerical Modelling of Sand Wave Fields in the North Sea using Delft3D FM
Since September I have been busy with modelling Sand Waves in the North Sea using Delft3D-FM. The prediction of sand waves is relevant for the depvelopment of offshore wind farms in those areas. The sand waves are several meters in height and have a length of several hundreds of meters. They migrate with a rate of a few meters a year and in the direction of migration they can have a relatively steep slope. This sudden change in bed level can be a risk for among others foundations, cables and pipelines. The scale of these sand waves (and especially the steep slope) relative to the scale of the system (the sea/ocean), makes modelling difficult. Mostly idealized 2D situations have been modelled, but the Delft3D Flexible Mesh model might be a solution for this scale problem through the use of unstructured grids. Since September I have worked on a extensive comparison between Delft3D-4 and FM for an idealized sand wave application. More recently I have set up a model with real bathymetry data (instead of idealized sand waves) in Delft3D-FM. The model results were promissing.
