Impact of initial conditions on the prediction of the spread of thermal pollution in rivers

Monika B Kalinowska ,Artur Magnuszewski,Paweł M Rowiński

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20184005048

Monika B Kalinowska , Artur Magnuszewski + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20184005048

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Abstract

The influence of initial conditions on the prediction of the increase of river temperature below the point of release of heated water for a designed power plant has been analysed in this study. The results for different assumed values of river flow and different temperatures of the discharged heated water have been presented. The results have been analysed taking into account existing legal frames. The two-dimensional inhouse RivMix model has been used to simulate the temperature distribution whereas the two-dimensional depth-averaged turbulent open channel flow model CCHE2D has been used to simulate the velocity fields and the water depths for the selected flows of the river.

Highlights

River temperature results from environmental conditions, its topography, and stream discharge
The computed temperature distributions for the continuous point-like discharges for the scenarios mentioned in Table 2 are presented below
We fully realize that the influence of initial conditions on final results in boundary value problems dissipates and the temperatures of water tend to the same values no matter what initial conditions we set

Summary

Introduction

River temperature results from environmental conditions, its topography, and stream discharge. Thermal pollution is a result of any unnatural process that changes ambient water temperature In rivers, it is often caused by discharged heated water used for cooling purposes by industrial facilities, such as steam electric power plants, chemical plants, etc. Besides many other aspects of EIA, prediction of possible increase of water temperature caused by an artificial heat source is of crucial importance Such predictions are usually made using numerical models. The twodimensional (2D) RivMix model has been used to simulate the temperature distribution This model is based upon the depth-averaged heat transport equation in which a non-diagonal dispersion tensor with four dispersion coefficients is taken into account Some piecemeal results related to the considered case of heated water discharges were mentioned in [3, 12]

Study area

Initial conditions

Results

Conclusions