Proceedings of the 2nd IMT-GT Regional Conference on Mathematics, Statistics and Applications Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, June

13-15, 2006
Computation of the Dispersion of Decaying Pollutants Discharged at Sea A. Q. MALIK Department of Physics, University of Brunei Darussalam, Jalan Tungku Link, Gadong BE1410, Brunei Darussalam. Email: aqmalik@fos.ubd.edu.bn Abstract. Computer simulation package, HydroTrack, has been used to simulate transportation of decaying pollutants in the sea that uses Lagrangian random-walk methods to model turbulent dispersion. This approach has several advantages over more widely used numerical methods such as finite-difference and finite-element methods. This model uses velocity-field data calculated by a two or three-dimensional free surface model or this can be operated in a constant velocity-field. The model has been used to study instantaneous and continuous discharge of decaying pollutants in water along the coast of Brunei Darussalam using measured tidal-level data. Preliminary results reveal that the concentration of pollutant increases with time at a point of release and decreases due to its decaying character. This concentration decreases rapidly as distance increases from the point of release. The results reported can be used in designing the disposal site away from the sensitive regions that pose health and environmental problems. 1. Introduction

The use of mathematical models to study the liquid pollutant discharging in sea has been investigated by many researchers in recent years. These models either use finite-difference or finite-element methods and are able to in corporate data only as boundary conditions or as calibration parameters [1-9]. Most of these models are known to introduce excessive numerical diffusion or negative concentrations. When modelling pollutant transport in coastal areas or estuaries where diffusion effects are relatively small in the dispersion processes, it become very difficult to differentiate between the natural or real diffusion from that introduced artificially by numerical models. This problem is aggravated when modelling decaying substances since in reality the pollutant mass is decaying and the numerical solution adds its own artificial disappearing mechanism. It is therefore important to use a model that guarantees mass conservation while reducing numerical diffusion. In the present study HydroTrack, a graphical software system for the simulation of pollutant discharges in water, has been used. This software is based on three dimensional mathematical model to simulate transport of decaying substances in water using a Lagrangian random-walk method to model turbulent diffusion [10]. The main advantages of this random-walk technique over the widely used numerical methods is the elimination of numerical diffusion but only when a high resolution scheme is used to solve the equations. Test results show that the traditional numerical methods frequently used to solve the particle trajectory equations does not give good solutions and therefore should be avoided [12]. Also, contrary to the common belief, Lagrangian particle tracking algorithms to calculate pollutant trajectories may produce numerical dispersion in complex flow fields if equations are solved with low accurate numerical integration schemes. The fourth order Runge-Kutta method used in HydroTrack is more stable than numerical methods and does not introduce numerical dispersion.

2.

The model

HydroTrack used in the present investigation is a computational visual tool for the modeling and analysis of complex hydrodynamics and pollutant transport in rivers, estuaries and coastal regions. The model has already been discussed in detail by Garia and Rodriguez, Graia and Kawahitaand, and Garia et al. [10-13]. A brief description of these is given here. HydroTrack

is composed of six subsystems: Geographic Subsystems, Grid Subsystem, Model Subsystem, Graphical Subsystem, Data Management Subsystem and Help Subsystem. The mathematical model used in this software is based on the hypothesis that follow the behavior of passive and decaying pollutants observed in laboratory experiments and in the field. It uses water current and pollutant transport models to simulate pollutant discharges in water. 2.1. Water current model

To determine water velocity field, the present model implements a numerical hydrodynamic model [10] that simulates wind and tidal currents under a shallow-water approximation. To solve the governing differential equations the model uses an explicit time discretisation based on a finite-difference time-split scheme as described in MacCormack [18]. The model, extensively applied and validated for solving several problems in rivers and estuaries [1013], calculates the horizontal and vertical velocities and water elevation at the centre of each computational cell. Computational cells lie within the modeling region (simulation region) as shown in Figure 1. This region was introduced in the model by specifying the geographical contours of Brunei Darussalam, the contours representing coastal lines, islands and river banks that form the actual perimeters of the modelling region. Once the region is created, individual cells or groups of them are selected. There are four types of cells: open boundary cells where water may enter or leave the computational region; closed boundary cells which represent land or solid boundaries such as coast lines or river banks; internal cells are those enclosed by open and closed boundary cells; all other cells of the grid are external cells. Horizontal velocities are calculated using data on diurnal tidal levels. Horizontal velocities are calculated using data on diurnal tidal level. Tese data are provided as an input to the model. The vertical velocities are calculated using the buoyancy forces due to the difference in densities between pure sea water and the discharged pollutant. This allows, for example, simulations of three-dimensional pollutant trajectories discharged from submerged outfalls. If the pollutant is neutrally buoyant the model determines two-dimensional particle trajectories in the horizontal plane. These velocities are later used as input to compute advective particle trajectories. 2.2. Pollutant transport model

Based on experimental and theoretical results, the three-dimensional advection-diffusion equation has been solved by the Lagrange approach where the pollutant is represented by a predetermined large number of tracer particles. At any desired time interval, pollutant concentrations are calculated using a local mass balance [14, 15]. The model calculates the particle trajectories in a turbulent-flow field using pollutant velocities calculated by the above water current model. The model simulates the random velocities due to turbulent diffusion and proportional to the diffusion coefficient of the pollutant into seawater, using Monte Carlo samplings (see appendix). The pollutant transport model first reads the total number of pollutant particles from the input data along with the time and point of release of each. Then, for each time it calculates velocity fluctuation ranges based on the value of the specified dispersion coefficients in each direction. In the next step it calculates random velocities using Monte Carlo sampling. Then it reads the advective velocity field from the data file generated by the water current model and calculates new particle trajectories. This model also calculates the concentration of pollutant at desired time intervals (specified by the user) as discussed in section 4. In the present study this concentration was obtained at 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 seconds after releasing the pollutant particles. All the above steps are incorporated in the programming code and the user has no access either to modify the program or to get any extra information. 3. Diffusion Coefficients

Proper estimation of the turbulent diffusion coefficients is one of the basic factors affecting the quality of pollutant transport modelling in coast waters, since they determine the random

velocity ranges and consequently the spatial spreading of the pollutant. One of the best methodologies to calculate diffusion coefficients is due to Okubo [19], which develops the following expression for the horizontal diffusion coefficient as a function of time:

t = 2.696 10 (1) t o where time t is in second, t o = 1 s and is in m 2 s 1 . The vertical coefficient is taken from
7

t = t o

3/ 4

3/ 4

Csanady [20] who has recommended a value of z = 10 3 m 2 s 1 . Compilation of this step (diffusion coefficients) is carried out using all necessary data calculated earlier by the water current and pollutant transport models. 4. Estimation of the Concentration

The conservative pollutant concentration at a point is calculated using the giving initial concentration Ci = 2.4 1016 coli / m 3 at the point of discharge. With the decaying pollutant for example sewage discharges in the sea the decaying processes due to bacteria mortality is approximated by a first order kinetics in which the decaying rate is proportional to the concentration of bacteria:

dC d dt

= k Ci

(2)

where k is the decaying-rate constant. The solution of the equation (2) is given below

Cd
and
k =

= Ci e k t
2.3 . t90

(3)

t90 is defined as the time to reduce the population of bacteria to one tenth of the initial population.
It depends on the discharge site, the temperature and the sunlight and it may vary in the range of 0.5 to 20 hours. To incorporate this decay process in the Lagrangian model, in every time step the concentration of each particle is calculated as follows
n C pi o = C pi e (2.3 / t90 )Tt

(4)

n o where C pi is the concentration of the particle i at middle of the nth time interval, C pi is the

initial concentration of particle i , and Tt is the travel time (time since its release) of particle i . The concentration C i of pollutant at the point of discharge is provided as input data to the model which then solves the set of equations (2-4) that are included in the computer code. The code was instructed to compile information (output data) at specific points at interval of 10 meters from the point of release, up to maximum of 100 meters. 5. Methodology

The HydroTrack [10, 12] computational model simplifies the simulation of coastal hydrodynamics and pollutant transport problems, permitting rapid modelling of a simulation site.

The model was used to simulate a submerged sewage discharge in the Brunei coastal area. This area was set up in the computer model by defining the simulation region in the form of geographical features (contours) like land and coastal lines along with water depths. Figure 1 shows the simulation region consisting of impermeable cells (dark continuous line), open boundary cells and water depths at selected points. Open boundary cells where water may enter or leave the simulation region and impermeable cells (closed boundary cells) that represent land or solid boundaries such as coast lines or river banks. Open boundary conditions towards the South China Sea were imposed in the form of tidal elevations (input data) at an interval of one hour for the months of January, March and May 2001 obtained from the Topographical Department of Brunei Shell. The simulation of a continuous pollutant discharge was performed using the velocity fields resulting from the water current model. The water current model uses the tidal elevation data to calculate velocity fields and water depth versus time. These data are transferred to the pollutant transport model for simulations. The information on the nature, volume, discharge duration, flow rate, number of particles of pollutant and the coordinates of the point of release were provided as input data to the pollutant transport model to investigate the decaying of pollutant in the sea. 6. Results and Discussion

The pollutant discharges 1.0 m 3 / hour of sewage water having a concentration of 2.4 1016 Coli / m 3 which was released at the Sea View site to a depth of 10 meters for a duration of one hour [21]. The maximum concentration of the sewage water was built up at the point of discharge during the process of releasing it at the Sea View site. As soon as it mixed with the sea water, the decaying process initiated and the dilution of pollutant in the sewage water started. The dilution of pollutants is a complex function of a number of variables which have been discussed in section 2. The characteristics of sewage water as it flows in the sea water are simulated using the HydroTrack package. The results of the pollutant transport model give the concentration of pollutant as a function of time at the point of release and as it moves away from the point of release. In the present study the concentration of pollutant particles at a distance of 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 53 and 63 meters from the point of release at 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 seconds (since its release) at a depth of 10 meters was recorded and results are shown in Figures 2-4.

South China Sea (Open boundary)

South China Sea (Open boundary)

Sea View Sewage Disposal Site

FIGURE 1. The computational (simulation) grid represents the Brunei coast defined for modelling area showing depths, at selected points.

It has been noted that a maximum relative concentration of 90 95% of discharge pollutants is diluted at a distance of 10 meters from the point of release. The concentration of these particles decays and eventually approaches to zero as these are mixed with the sea water and move away from the point of release.
1.2

Variation of the Relative Concentration of Pollutant Particles with Distance in the Month of January

Relative Concentration

0.8

(Jan 1000 s) (Jan 2000 s) (Jan 3000 s)

0.6

(Jan 4000 s)

0.4

0.2

0 0 -0.2 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Distance from point of release (meters)

FIGURE 2. Variation of the relative concentration of pollutant particles with distance from the point of release for the month of January 2001.
Variation of the relative Concentration of Pollutant Particles with Distance in the Month of March

1 0.9 0.8

Relative Concentration

0.7 0.6 (Mar 1000 s) 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 -0.1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 (Mar 2000 s) (Mar 3000 s) (Mar 4000 s)

Distance from point of release (meters)

FIGURE 3. Variation of the relative concentration of pollutant particles with distance from the point of release for the month of March 2001.

1.2

Variation of the Relavent Concentration of Pollutant Prticles with Distance in the Month of May

Relative Concentration

0.8

0.6

(May 1000 s) (May 2000 s) (May 3000 s) (May 4000 s)

0.4

0.2

0 0 -0.2 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Distance from point of release (meters)

FIGURE 4. Variation of the relative concentration of pollutant particles with distance from the point of release for the month of May 2001.

A comparison of the relative concentration of pollutants at different tide elevations are shown in Figures 5 and 6. The results presented in these figures reveal the tidal influence as well as the effect of decaying. However, the tidal influence is relatively less as compared to the effect of decaying parameter. This may be due to the fact that Brunei Darussalam is located at latitude of 4.96 o N and lies in the equatorial region where the variation in the tidal elevation is not too much through out a calendar year.
Comparison of the Relative Concentration of Polutant particles from the point of release

0.9

0.8

0.7

Relative Concentration

0.6 January (T = 2000 s) 0.5 March (T = 2000 s) May (T = 2000 s) 0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0 -0.1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Distance from point of release (meters)

FIGURE 5. Comparison of the variation of pollutant particles at 2000 seconds after releasing the discharge with distance from the point of release for the months of January, March and May 2001.
Comparison of the Relative Concentration of Pollutant Particles from the Point of Release
1.2

Relative Concentration

0.8

0.6

January (T = 4000 s) March (T = 4000 s) May (T = 4000 s)

0.4

0.2

0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Distance from point of release (meter)

FIGURE 6. Comparison of the variation of pollutant particles at 4000 seconds after releasing the discharge with distance from the point of release for the months of January, March and May 2001. The results shown in Figures 2-6 demonstrate that pollutant rapidly diluted in the turbulent tidal flow at a distance of 20 meters from the point of release and the relative pollutant concentration decreased and eventually disappeared. This is due to the diffusion of discharged particles with the sea water. One can change the point of release if required to safe-guard sensitive regions at which concentration of pollutant does not exceed a pre-assigned value. The concentration decreases rapidly as distance increases from the point of release and this can help in designing the disposal site away from the sensitive regions. It is important to note that in general the variations in the ocean currents, winds and the ocean turbulence are such that the relative concentration of pollutant particles can vary dramatically at a fixed point. For example, it may be possible at one time a certain region/fixed point be within the polluted range and a short time later

be outside in the unpolluted water (where the relative concentration approaches to zero). The statistical analysis of many measurements does however give an indication the safe-guard region should be away from the theoretically calculated positions. The results of the present study are qualitatively in good agreement with the field measurements taken by Sabri et. al. [21]. These authors had studied the water quality in the coastal water by monitoring the water samples taken at different stations in areas used for fisheries and recreation. The water samples taken at the Sea View disposal site show the highest concentration of coli forms at upstream (50 meters from the outlet) decreasing as the sampling points move towards the sea. No other results on simulation of decaying pollutants at sea for Brunei Darussalam are available for comparison. Work is being planned to simulate a submerged sewage discharge in the other months of the year as well as including other sewage outfalls along the Brunei coast. A. Conclusions and Recommendations 1. The present study describes the use of a mathematical model to simulate transport of pollutants that decay in time. The model adopts a Lagrangian approach where the pollutant is represented by a large number of tracer particles. Dispersion mechanisms are treated with a random-walk method that uses Montrcarlo sampling to simulate turbulent diffusion. 2. The computer package used in the present study HydroTrack is a microcomputer software which provides scientific tools to solve complex hydraulic and pollutant transport problems that in past required mainframes or expensive high end workstations. 3. HydroTrack not only simplifies the modeling process but also provides in-depth analysis in overcoming environmental problems. This is because of the fact that different simulation sites can very easily be accommodated in the computational model and boundary conditions can also be varied. 4. It is recommended that simulations of decaying pollutant continue in other sewage outfalls situated along the Brunei coast. 5. It is recommended that the present study should be extended to include the rest of the months of the calendar year. 6. It is also recommended that water velocities at different pollutant locations would be recorded to establish the direction of flow of pollutant particles at a particular location. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr R. Brown and Professor P. N. Tandon for their valuable comments on the manuscript. Constructive discussions with other colleagues in the Physics Department of University Brunei Darussalam are acknowledged. References [1] [2] [3] P. N. Tandon, and P. Ramalingham, Alternative models for the disposal of flue gases in deep sea, In: C. A. Brebbia (edi.), Environmental Coastal Regions: Proceedings of Second International Conference, WIT Press, 1998, pp. 185 196. P. N. Tandon, Mathematical and Computer Models for the disposal of Liquid effluents in deep Sea, In: A. P. Dwivedi (edi.), Mathematical modeling of Non-linear Systems: Proceedings of the International Conference India, 2000, pp. 224 241. P. N. Tandon and A. Q. Malik, Alternative methods of disposal of flue gases in deep sea, In: B. Singh, U. S. Gupta, G. S. Srivastava, T. R. Gulati and V. K. Katiyar (edis.), Mathematical Modelling: Proceedings of the International conference, India, Tata McGraw-Hill, India, 2001, pp. 130140. P. N. Tandon, P. Ramalinham, and A. Q. Malik, Dispersion of flue gases from power plants in Brunei Darussalam, Pure Appl. Geophys., 160 (2003), 405 418. A. Q. Malik, Disposal in the Sea of Carbon Dioxide Released from Power Stations, In:,

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