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https://hdl.handle.net/11681/13110| Title: | Houston-Galveston Navigation Channels, Texas Project. Report 4, Three-dimensional numerical modeling of hydrodynamics and salinity |
| Authors: | Jones and Neuse. United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Galveston District. Berger, Rutherford C. McAdory, Robert T. Schmidt, Joseph H. Hauck, Larry H. Martin, William D. |
| Keywords: | Estuary Galveston Bay, Texas Mathematical models Navigation channels Salinity intrusion Salinity Hydrodynamics Navigation channels Saltwater encroachment |
| Publisher: | Hydraulics Laboratory (U.S.) Engineer Research and Development Center (U.S.) |
| Series/Report no.: | Technical report (U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station) ; HL-92-7 rept. 4. |
| Description: | Technical Report Abstract: This report describes the testing program conducted to evaluate the impact of enlargement of the Houston-Galveston Navigation Channel on the salinity and hydrodynamic fields of tidally influenced Galveston Bay. The present channel nominal dimensions are 40 ft deep at mean low water (mlw) and 400 ft wide. The proposed enlargements tested are for a channel 45 ft deep at mlw and 530 ft wide (Phase I) and 50 ft deep and 600 ft wide (Phase II). Current plans do not include the Phase II enlargement. Salinity fields for these channel configurations and the existing channel dimensions are compared. In a separate study the results from these simulations were used to drive an ecosystem model to predict oyster product ion. Testing conditions included tidal conditions and winds for the year 1984. The freshwater inflows (developed outside this study) were tested for low-, medium-. and high-flow years. Additionally, since water demand in the future is expected to modify freshwater distribution and quantities, future distributions for the test year 1999 (Wallisville Dam in place) and 2024. The code used (RMA 10-WES) is a Galerkin-based finite element solution to simulate three-dimensional (3-D) unsteady open-channel flow. The code represents 3-D hydrodynamics using conservation of fluid mass, horizontal momentum, and salinity/temperature transport equations subject to the hydrostatic assumption. Results of these tests showed that the largest increases in salinity were in low-salinity areas, including the upper west side of the bay across the channel from Atkinson Island, and the upper bay channel. Trinity Bay showed a small salinity increase. South of midbay the salinity increases were generally less than 1 ppt. Some locations in the south bay near the navigation channel occasionally showed a decrease in salinity for the deeper channel configurations. These decreases occurred during the period of rebound in salinity after the high inflow period of late spring. The deepened channels showed increased salinity stratification. The stratification increased with channel project depths and with freshwater inflow in the Buffalo Bayou/San Jacinto River Basin. The future hydrologic scenarios result in more freshwater inflow to Galveston Bay through Buffalo Bayou and San Jacinto River. The deepened channels typically resulted in less significant salinity increases in the scenarios than for the present hydrologic year (1990). These future scenarios redistribute some of the freshwater inflow from the Trinity River and reintroduce it through Buffalo Bayou and San Jacinto River. The model indicates a corresponding increase in salinity in Trinity Bay and decrease in the western upper bay salinity. NOTE: This file is very large. Allow your browser several minutes to download the file. |
| Rights: | Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11681/13110 |
| Appears in Collections: | Technical Report |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TR-HL-95-7-V4.pdf | 14.42 MB | Adobe PDF |  View/Open |