12ème Congrès de Mécanique 21-24 Avril 2015 - Casablanca (Maroc)

COMPUTATIONAL MODELLING Materials and methods

OF TIDAL EFFECT ON
WASTEWATER DISPERSION IN
COASTAL BAY: CASE OF
TANGIER’S BAY.
JEYAR M.1, CHAABELASRI EM. 1,*, SALHI N.1
1. LME, Faculté des Sciences, Université Mohammed
Premier, 60000 Oujda, Maroc
* Auteur correspondant (chaabelasri @gmail.com)
Abstract:
This paper describes a numerical modelling of the process
of coastal pollution by wastewater in the Bay of Tangier.
The numerical model is based on Shallow Water
equations used for the hydrodynamics and an equation of
advection-diffusion for describes the wastewater
assimilated of a passive pollutant, then, the obtained
model is resolved using a unstructured triangular finite
volumes method. The found results show that: (i) the tidal
flows have a direct effects on direction of wastewater
dispersion that can used to control its evacuation out of
bay (ii) with the numerical model used we can modelling
domains that have more complicated geometry and
bathymetry, and this, in a large time scale.
Key words: Pollutant, Numerical modeling, Tanger’s
bay, Shallow water equation.
Introduction
The wastewater discharged into the sea through bays or
This study used numerical model predictions. Initially,
bathymetric and sea-level data were calculated as a
preliminary assessment for the hydrodynamic
characteristics of the bay. These data were used then to
assessment a case of pollutant dispersion over idealized
tidal cycle. Sub-sections describe the study area and
summarize the essential steps of mathematical and
numerical model formulations.
a. Description of the system
The Bay of Tangier (Cf. FIG. 1) is a semi-enclosed
shallow basin located on the west coast of the southern
Strait of Gibraltar. The bed topography is spatially quite
non-uniform, with the mean water depth increasing
progressively from 0 m at the shore to about 50 m at the
interface with the greater Mediterranean Sea. The vertical
flow structure in the Bay of Tangier consists of an upper
layer of incoming cold fresh surface Atlantic water
overlying a deep current of outgoing warmer salt water
[4]. The bay is heavily used by shipping, whose volume
has grown since the recent development of a
Mediterranean port at Tangier. Assessment of the
environmental risk is therefore required, and the present
numerical tool is being developed with this longer-term
aim in mind. In this work, the domain area was
discredited in unstructured meshes composed of triangles.
Along the simulation time we use the same mesh
composed by 4140 nodes and 7611 triangles.
6000
4140 Nodes / 7611 Elements
Q
4000

lagoons has particularly adverse impact on marine life. 100

Y [m]

75

The specialists have found that many of the chemicals and

Z [m]

50

2000
P
industrial hamper the chemical reactions and cause the 25

0 0
(1) 0 1000

death and sometimes the disappearance of certain species. (5) 1000

2000 3000
2000

(4) Y [m 3000 4000

X [m
]

The increase in water temperature and the concentration 0

(2)
(3)
]
4000
5000 6000
5000

of polluting substances assumes at the same time an 0 2000 4000

X [m]
6000

increase in the consumption of oxygen, which is harmful

FIG. 1 – Tanger’s bay. Left: mesh of unstructured
to marine life.
triangles (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 the location connected rivers) .
These studies of local situations have motivated
Right: three-dimensional view bathymetry.
mathematicians and computer scientists, since permitted
levels of contamination have been largely surpassed in
b. Hydrodynamic and pollutant advection-
many different societies and regions. Models, although of
diffusion models
several different types, have been approximated by
The 2D shallow water equations and the advection-
feasible numerical methods for some years [1, 2, 3].
diffusion with source terms of bed slope and bed friction
Several numerical methods developed for hyperbolic
is adopted and may be written in tensor notation and in a
systems of conservation laws were applied to the shallow
compact conservative form as [5]:
water equations that are used in this work to model the
flows prevailing in the bay. In this order we describe a
finite volume shock-capturing scheme for the high- ∂ t (W ) + ∂ xi ( F (W ) − G (W )) = S (W )
resolution solution of the non-homogenous hyperbolic where:
system of equations that represent shallow flow pollutant  0 
transport processes. The method is high resolution and  h   
  τ τ ∂Z
aimed at analyzing the processes of direct discharge of W =  hui  , S =  wi − bi − gh b  ,
 ρ ρ ∂xi 
wastewater on two-dimensional domains with    
complicated boundary and bed geometry, such as the Bay  hC 
 Sc 
of Tangier.
 12ème Congrès de Mécanique 21-24 Avril 2015 - Casablanca (Maroc)

  d ij and xi is the intersection of the orthogonal

 hui   
 2 
0
gh   bisectors of the edge Γi , meas ( Γ ij ) is the length of the
F =  hui u j +  , G = 0 
 2    edge. The source terms are balanced by means of a two-
 hu C   ∂ ∂C 
 i   ∂x (hDi ∂x )  dimensional implementation of the upwind scheme
 i i 
proposed by Vazquez et al. [8] Integration of the source
term over the control volume Vi gives:
where i and j are indices and the Einstein summation
∫S (W ) dV =
n

convention is used, i.e. repeated indices mean a Vi

summation over the space coordinates . h is water depth, ∑ [[ I − A(W , n ) A(W , n )].s
j∈N ( i )
ij ij
n
( X i , X j ,Wi ,W j , nij )].Γ ij
t is time, U i depth-averaged velocity, Z b is the bed
elevation above a fixed horizontal datum, C is depth- Where I is the identity matrix, A(W , nij ) is the Roe flux
averaged concentration, Di is the dispersion coefficient jacobien and s n ( X i , X j , Wi ,W j , nij ) represent an
in the i - direction, S is the depth-averaged source term,
c approximation of the source term at the cell interface Γ ij .
τ bi ,τ wi are respectively the bed shear stress and wind Finally, to obtain higher-order spatial accuracy, the fluxes
at each edge are calculated using a piecewise linear
stress, given respectively by [6]: .
2 function of the state variable W inside the control
−
τ bi = ρ gnb2 h 6 ui u j u j volume, for more details we refer the readers to works(3) [7]
.
( )
τ wi = ρ × ρa 0.75 + 0.067 w j w j ×10−3 wi w j w j Results and discussion
in which nb the Manning’s coefficient at the bed , ρ a For numerical simulation of water circulation and
wastewater dispersion in Tanger’s bay, we propose
is the air density and ρ is the water density. scenario with tidal flow. The tidal flow was forced at
In the context of finite volume, the integral of equation Atlantic ocean side boundaries through the specification
(1) over a triangular element (see FIG. 1) is written as the of the surface tidal elevation. We have limited our
sum of each edge contribution [5], numerical modeling study to the semidiurnal component,
n +1 ∆t r (4)
forcing the model with the M2, S2 and N2 components:
W i = W i − Vi j∈∑ ∫ F (W n , n )d Γ
n
3
∑ An cos(ωnt +ψ n )
N ( i ) Γij
h(t ) =
∆t n r
+
Vi
∑ ∫ G(W , n )d Γ + ∫ S (W )dV
n
n =1

where An is the amplitude, ωn is the pulsation and ψ n

j∈N ( i ) Γij Vi
n

To evaluate the state W ,an approximation is required of

i
of the semi-diurnal component.
the convective and diffusive flux terms at each cell edge The model was run for three days with tidal forcing in
.The integral along the i − j edge of a control volume order to achieve a steady flow exchange. The steady
of the normal flux F (W n , n) = F1nx + F2 ny can be exchange obtained is characterized by an inflow and an
outflow behavior. Indeed, this is evident in a cross section
written, of simulated water height along the distance PQ at times
1 t=T, t=T/4 and t=3T/4 shown in FIG. 2. (5)
∫ F (W , n)d Γ = ( F (Wi , nij ) + F (W j , nij ))
n

Γij
2 Then, in third day, we start the wastewater injection,
which is assimilated by a passive pollutant, through five
1
− R(W , nij ) A(W , nij ) L(W , nij )(W j − Wi ).Lij connected rivers (see FIG. 1).
2
Spanish
A(W , nij ) is the flux jacobian evaluated using Roe’s 50
t=T
t=T/4
+
++
+ + +
+ t=3T/4
++
+ ++
average state, R and L are the right and left eigenvector 40 ++
+
Water height [m]

+ ++
++
++
matrice of A .
30
+
+
+
+
A four point finite volume interpolation is used to 20
Tangier ( port )
+ ++
+

evaluate the diffusion flux through an inner edge Γ ij so

++
10 + + + + +
+ + + +
+
+
that: 1000 2000 3000 4000
Distance along the width of the bay from the port entrance [m]
5000

∂C C j − Ci FIG. 2 – Cross section of simulated depth-averaged (6)

water
∫ ∇C.nd Γ =
Γij
∫Γij ∂n d Γ = meas(Γij ) dij height along the PQ section at three tidal times.

The simulated results are presented in FIG. 3, and show

the concentration contour of wastewater at three separate
 12ème Congrès de Mécanique 21-24 Avril 2015 - Casablanca (Maroc)

instances from thirteenth days after injection. A simple [3] Z. Wu, G.Q. Chen, L. Zeng, Environmental dispersion
inspection of this results reveals that the change of in a two-zone wetland, Ecological Modelling 222 (2011)
velocity field direction during the time process according 456–474.
to one period of the considered tides have a direct effect [4] M. Gonzalez, A. Sánchez-Arcilla, Un Modelo
on direction of propagation of wastewater. The influence Numérico en Elementos Finitos para la Corriente
of tidal currents appears at the right of the bay in terms of Inducida por la Marea. Aplicaciones al Estrecho de
iso-concentrations are essentially moved, this reflects the Gibraltar, Revista Internacional de Métodos Numéricos
fact that the wastewater mass is mainly moved by the tidal para Cálculo y Diseño en Ingenieria. 11 (1995) 383–400.
flow. Finally, the results show that wastewater [5] E. M. Chaabelasri, A. Amahmouj, M. Jeyar, A. G. L.
concentration decreased by diffusing effect due the tidal Borthwick, N. Salhi, and I. Elmahi, “Numerical Survey of
waves. Contaminant Transport and Self-Cleansing of Water in
Nador Lagoon, Morocco,” Modelling and Simulation in
Engineering, vol. (2014), ID 179504 .
C: 0.6 2.0 3.3 4.6 5.9 7.2 8.5 9.9 C: 0.6 2.0 3.3 4.6 5.9 7.2 8.5 9.9
doi:10.1155/2014/179504.
4000 t=0 t=T/4 [6] F. Benkhaldoun, I. Elmahi and M. Seaid, Well-
balanced finite volume schemes for pollutant transport by
Y [m]

shallow water equations on unstructured meshes, Journal

2000
of Computer Physics , 226 (2007) pp. 180–203.
[7] F. Benkhaldoun, I. Elmahi and M. Seaid, Application
0
of mesh-adaptation for pollutant transport by water flow,
C: 0.6 2.0 3.3 4.6 5.9 7.2 8.5 9.9 C: 0.6 2.0 3.3 4.6 5.9 7.2 8.5 9.9
Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 79 (2009)
4000
t=T/2
t=3T/4 3415–3423.
[8] Vazquez-Cendon ME. Improved treatment of source
Y [m]

terms in upwind schemes for shallow water equations in

2000
channels with irregular geometry. Journal of
Computational Physics 1999; 148:497– 526.
0
0 2000 4000 6000 0 2000 4000 6000
Y [m] Y [m]

FIG. 3 – Concentration contours of wastewater at four

times measured during a typical tidal period.

Conclusion
In this study, a numerical model is used for numerical
analysis of process of coastal pollution by wastewater in
the Bay of Tangier. The numerical model is based on a
coupled Shallow Water and advection-diffusion equations
for describing, respectively, the water flow and
wastewater advection-dispersion. The pollutant
concentration is captured and the flow field is resolved
reasonably well. The features obtained illustrate the
robustness of the numerical model used and its capability
to run simulation of such area during moderated time
scales.
As a perspective of this work, various research topics can
be considered. Indeed, it seems very interesting to
calibrate the numerical model before starting a realistic
modelling, also extend the model to a three-dimensional
in order to take into account the real participation of
vertical variation of the physical variables, this will be a
challenge for next work.

References
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Problems, vol. 16, Studies in Mathematics and Its
Applications. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1986).
[2] Y. Montano-Ley , R. Peraza-Vizcarra, F. Páez-Osuna,
The tidal hydrodynamics modeling of the Topolobampo
coastal lagoon system and the implications for pollutant
dispersion, Environmental Pollution 147 (2007) 282-290.