Modeling and simulation of pollution transport in the Mediterranean Sea using enriched finite element method

Abstract

This paper presents a novel numerical method for simulating the transport and dispersion of pollutants in the Mediterranean sea. The governing mathematical equations consist of a barotropic ocean model with friction terms, bathymetric forces, Coriolis and wind stresses coupled to an advection–diffusion equation with anisotropic dispersion tensor and source terms. The proposed numerical solver uses a multilevel adaptive semi-Lagrangian finite element method that combines various techniques, including the modified method of characteristics, finite element discretization, coupled projection scheme based on a rotational pressure correction algorithm, and an adaptive L2-projection. The approach employs the gradient of the concentration as an error indicator for enrichment adaptations and increasing the number of quadrature points where needed without refining the mesh. The method is shown to provide accurate and efficient simulations for pollution transport in the Mediterranean sea. The proposed approach distinguishes itself from the well-established adaptive finite element methods for incompressible viscous flows by retaining the same structure and dimension of linear systems during the adaptation process.