PNNL

Abstract

The physical scales of many stream and river plumes often lie between the scales for mixing zone plume models, such as the EPA Visual Plumes plume models and larger-sized grid scales for regional circulation models like FVCOM. A potential advantage of these plume models is that they use entrainment theory to simulate the growth of plumes, a technique proven useful in simulating turbulent plume discharges from various sources, some approaching the dimensions of rivers. Important advantages of models like FVCOM are that they are dynamic and include the effects of the earth’s rotation. The results based on limited verification data showed that the simple steady state model simulates observed velocity and concentration data fairly well during times that its governing assumptions were most valid, namely during periods of weak or absent ambient current and strong discharge velocity. FVCOM was judged to give better estimates under all other ambient current conditions, although the data cannot be used to prove this assertion when the plume was deflected from the path of the instruments. It was found that plume models can be used to help establish appropriate boundary limits and conditions when setting up hydrodynamic models.