Author(s)

R.V. Pearson & R.W. Barber

Abstract

A two-dimensional Lagrangian particle model has been established to simulate depth-integrated contaminant dispersion in estuaries and coastal seas. The governing advection-diffusion equation is first rearranged into a Fokker-Planck equation allowing the implementation of a consistent random-walk method to simulate diffusion with a spatially variable diffusivity. The paper then describes a novel particle tracking algorithm which can be used with arbitrary non-orthogonal boundary-fitted coordinate meshes. By definition, the particle tracking method is perfectly conservative and free from numerical diffusion in the classical sense. The scheme is also able to preserve steep concentration fronts enabling accurate simulations o

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