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Numerical modelling of the three-dimensional hydrodynamic processes of lakes and reservoirs – running

Hungary’s large lakes (e.g. Lake Balaton, Lake Fertő) have high cultural, touristic and ecological values. Nowadays several hydrodynamic information systems are operated for lakes, estuaries and coasts worldwide. These systems provide (real-time) information about the up-to-date status of the water environment. The actual status and the forecasting of the hydrodynamics are calculated with numerical models that are sometimes modified from a generic version in order to capture the relevant processes affecting that particular lake or coastal water. These major processes may include the transport of heat, sediment, physical and chemical substances, or biomass.

A three-dimensional, hydrostatic, free-surface circulation model solves the governing Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The extra terms arising from the averaging are closed with a turbulence schemes (e.g. modified Mellor and Yamada level 2.5). The different transport equations (e.g. heat and sediment) are integrated into these circulation models.

The 3D hydrodynamic models we are using handle up to several million unknowns at every timestep and are used to simulate periods in the order of months may be needed to characterize slow processes and statistics. These require high computational resources not available on desktop computers. The code of these models is developed for high-performance computing environments using MPI and greatly benefit from parallel execution on a cluster.

Project owner:
Dr. Torma Péter (Vízépítési és Vízgazdálkodási Tanszék)
Web address:
http://vit.bme.hu/
Members:
Vízépítési és Vízgazdálkodási Tanszék (ÉMK-VIT)