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Geology topics

Ralph T. Cheng

Publications and source records attributed to Ralph T. Cheng.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
USGS1997

Near bottom velocity and suspended solids measurements in San Francisco Bay, California

Ability to accurately measure long-term time-series of turbulent mean velocity distribution within the bottom boundary layer (BBL) in addition to suspended solids concentration (SSC) is critical to understanding complex processes controlling transport, resuspension, and deposition of suspended sediments in bays and estuaries. A suite of instruments, including broad band acoustic Doppler current profilers (BB-ADCPs), capable of making very high resolution measurement of velocity profiles in the BBL, was deployed in the shipping channel of South San Francisco Bay (South Bay), California in an investigation of sediment dynamics during March and April 1995. Results of field measurements provide information to calculate suspended solids flux (SSF) at the site. Calculations show striking patterns; residual SSF varies through the spring-neap tidal cycle. Significant differences from one spring tide to another are caused by differences in tidal current diurnal inequalities. Winds from significant storms establish residual circulation patterns that may affect magnitude of residual SSF more than increased tidal energy at spring tides.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1997

Bottom boundary layer in south San Francisco Bay, California

Detailed velocity distributions within the benthic turbulent boundary layer were measured by a Broad Band Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (BB-ADCP) in South San Francisco Bay, California. In "mode 5", the BB-ADCP was able to measure velocity in 5 cm increments. The validation of these measurements was achieved by comparing the BB-ADCP measurements with the velocities measured by a Narrow Band Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (NB-ADCP) in close proximity. There were thirty-three (33) velocity time-series measured by the BB-ADCP beginning at 7 cm above bed and extending to 175 cm in water column for about two weeks. The velocities from locations at 7 cm and 12 cm above the bed were determined to be of lower accuracy, and they were not used in estimates of friction velocity, u.. The values of u. at 95% confidence level were determined with relative error less than 20%. The time-series of u. varied with velocity outside of the boundary layer, and responded to spring-neap tidal variations. Attempts to use acoustic backscatterance echo intensity to measure suspended sediment concentration showed prom ise, and merit consideration in future studies.

California↗
USGS1996

Near bottom velocity measurements in San Francisco Bay, California

The ability to accurately measure long-term time-series of tidal currents in bays and estuaries is critical in estuarine hydrodynamic studies. Accurate measurements of tidal currents near the air-water interface and in the bottom boundary layer remain difficult in spite of the significant advances in technology for measuring tidal currents which have been achieved in recent years. One of the objectives of this study is to demonstrate that turbulent mean velocity distribution within the bottom boundary layer can be determined accurately by using a broad-band acoustic Doppler current profiler (BB-ADCP). A suite of instruments, including two BB-ADCPs and four electromagnetic (EM) current meters was deployed in San Francisco Bay, California in an investigation of resuspension and transport of sediment during March 1995. The velocity measurements obtained in the bottom boundary layer by BB-ADCP were highly coherent (r2>0.94) with the velocity measurements obtained by EM current meters. During early March 1995, both BB-ADCPs and EM current meters recorded a very unusual flow event. Agreement among independent measurements by these instruments in describing such an atypical hydrodynamic occurrence further validates the velocity measurements obtained by BB-ADCP in the bottom boundary layer.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1996

Modeling the periodic stratification and gravitational circulation in San Francisco Bay, California

A high resolution, three-dimensional (3-D) hydrodynamic numerical model is applied to San Francisco Bay, California to simulate the periodic tidal stratification caused by tidal straining and stirring and their long-term effects on gravitational circulation. The numerical model is formulated using fixed levels in the vertical and uniform computational mesh on horizontal planes. The governing conservation equations, the 3-D shallow water equations, are solved by a semi-implicit finite-difference scheme. Numerical simulations for estuarine flows in San Francisco Bay have been performed to reproduce the hydrodynamic properties of tides, tidal and residual currents, and salt transport. All simulations were carried out to cover at least 30 days, so that the spring-neap variance in the model results could be analyzed. High grid resolution used in the model permits the use of a simple turbulence closure scheme which has been shown to be sufficient to reproduce the tidal cyclic stratification and well-mixed conditions in the water column. Low-pass filtered 3-D time-series reveals the classic estuarine gravitational circulation with a surface layer flowing down-estuary and an up-estuary flow near the bottom. The intensity of the gravitational circulation depends upon the amount of freshwater inflow, the degree of stratification, and spring-neap tidal variations.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1994

Issues related to modeling the transport of suspended sediments in Northern San Francisco Bay, California

Measurements of suspended sediment concentrations at several deep-channel stations in San Francisco Bay are reviewed. Sediment concentrations are found to be strongly correlated with delta outflow, tidal, and spring/neap variations. However, little to no correlation is observed between wind speed and sediment concentration in the deep channel. A two-dimensional depth-averaged sediment transport model has been developed which includes the effects of tidal and spring-neap variations and wind-generated resuspension. During a period of low delta outflow, the model successfully reproduces field measurements of suspended sediment concentration at a station in San Pablo Bay. The model is found to be most sensitive to critical shear stresses, settling velocity, and the erosion rate constant.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1993

TRIM—3D: a three-dimensional model for accurate simulation of shallow water flow

A semi-implicit finite difference formulation for the numerical solution of three-dimensional tidal circulation is discussed. The governing equations are the three-dimensional Reynolds equations in which the pressure is assumed to be hydrostatic. A minimal degree of implicitness has been introduced in the finite difference formula so that the resulting algorithm permits the use of large time steps at a minimal computational cost. This formulation includes the simulation of flooding and drying of tidal flats, and is fully vectorizable for an efficient implementation on modern vector computers. The high computational efficiency of this method has made it possible to provide the fine details of circulation structure in complex regions that previous studies were unable to obtain. For proper interpretation of the model results suitable interactive graphics is also an essential tool.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1993

Recent developments in three-dimensional numerical estuarine models

For a fixed cost, computing power increases 5 to 10 times every five years. The readily available computing resources have inspired new modal formulations and innovative model applications. Significant progress has been advanced in three-dimensional numerical estuarine modeling within the past three or four years. This paper attempts to review and summarize properties of new 3-D estuarine hydrodynamic models. The emphasis of the review is placed on the formulation, numerical methods. The emphasis of the review is placed on the formulation, numerical methods, spatial and temporal resolution, computational efficiency, and turbulence closure of new models. Recent research has provided guidelines for the proper use of 3-D models involving in the σ-transformation. Other models resort to a fixed level discretization in the vertical. The semi-implicit treatment in time-stepping models appears to have gained momentum. Future research in three-dimensional numerical modeling remains to be on computational efficiency and turbulent closure.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1990

Stability analysis of Eulerian-Lagrangian methods for the one-dimensional shallow-water equations

In this paper stability and error analyses are discussed for some finite difference methods when applied to the one-dimensional shallow-water equations. Two finite difference formulations, which are based on a combined Eulerian-Lagrangian approach, are discussed. In the first part of this paper the results of numerical analyses for an explicit Eulerian-Lagrangian method (ELM) have shown that the method is unconditionally stable. This method, which is a generalized fixed grid method of characteristics, covers the Courant-Isaacson-Rees method as a special case. Some artificial viscosity is introduced by this scheme. However, because the method is unconditionally stable, the artificial viscosity can be brought under control either by reducing the spatial increment or by increasing the size of time step. The second part of the paper discusses a class of semi-implicit finite difference methods for the one-dimensional shallow-water equations. This method, when the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is used for the convective terms, is also unconditionally stable and highly accurate for small space increments or large time steps. The semi-implicit methods seem to be more computationally efficient than the explicit ELM; at each time step a single tridiagonal system of linear equations is solved. The combined explicit and implicit ELM is best used in formulating a solution strategy for solving a network of interconnected channels. The explicit ELM is used at channel junctions for each time step. The semi-implicit method is then applied to the interior points in each channel segment. Following this solution strategy, the channel network problem can be reduced to a set of independent one-dimensional open-channel flow problems. Numerical results support properties given by the stability and error analyses.

Applied Mathematical Modelling↗
USGS1989

On inter-tidal transport equation

The transports of solutes, sediments, nutrients, and other tracers are fundamental to the interactive physical, chemical, and biological processes in estuaries. The characteristic time scales for most estuarine biological and chemical processes are on the order of several tidal cycles or longer. To address the long-term transport mechanism meaningfully, the formulation of an inter-tidal conservation equation is the main subject of this paper. The commonly used inter-tidal conservation equation takes the form of a convection-dispersion equation in which the convection is represented by the Eulerian residual current, and the dispersion terms are due to the introduction of a Fickian hypothesis, unfortunately, the physical significance of this equation is not clear, and the introduction of a Fickian hypothesis is at best an ad hoc approximation. Some recent research results on the Lagrangian residual current suggest that the long-term transport problem is more closely related to the Lagrangian residual current than to the Eulerian residual current. With the aid of additional insight of residual current, the inter-tidal transport equation has been reformulated in this paper using a small perturbation method for a weakly nonlinear tidal system. When tidal flows can be represented by an M 2 system, the new intertidal transport equation also takes the form of a convective-dispersion equation without the introduction of a Fickian hypothesis. The convective velocity turns out to be the first order Lagrangian residual current (the sum of the Eulerian residual current and the Stokes’ drift), and the correlation terms take the form of convection with the Stokes’ drift as the convective velocity. The remaining dispersion terms are perturbations of lower order solution to higher order solutions due to shear effect and turbulent mixing.

Book chapter↗
USGS1989

Survey of three-dimensional numerical estuarine models

This paper surveys the existing 3-D estuarine hydrodynamic and solute transport models by a review of the commonly used assumptions and approximations, and by an examination of the methods of solution. The model formulations, methods of solution, and known applications are surveyed and summarized in tables. In conclusion, the authors present their modeling philosophy and suggest future research needs.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1988

Predicting tidal currents in San Francisco Bay using a spectral model

This paper describes the formulation of a spectral (or frequency based) model which solves the linearized shallow water equations. To account for highly variable basin bathymetry, spectral solutions are obtained using the finite element method which allows the strategic placement of the computation points in the specific areas of interest or in areas where the gradients of the dependent variables are expected to be large. Model results are compared with data using simple statistics to judge overall model performance in the San Francisco Bay estuary. Once the model is calibrated and verified, prediction of the tides and tidal currents in San Francisco Bay is accomplished by applying astronomical tides (harmonic constants deduced from field data) at the prediction time along the model boundaries.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1985

Solid state recording current meter conversion

The authors describe the conversion of an Endeco-174 current meter to a solid-state recording current meter. A removable solid-state module was designed to fit in the space originally occupied by an 8-track tape cartridge. The module contains a CPU and 128 kilobytes of nonvolatile CMOS memory. The solid-state module communicates with any terminal or computer using an RS-232C interface at 4800 baud rate. A primary consideration for conversion was to keep modifications of the current meter to a minimum. The communication protocol was designed to emulate the Endeco tape translation unit, thus the need for a translation unit was eliminated and the original data reduction programs can be used without any modification. After conversion, the data recording section of the current meter contains no moving parts; the storage capacity of the module is equivalent to that of the original tape cartridge.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1983

Euler-Lagrangian computation for estuarine hydrodynamics

The transport of conservative and suspended matter in fluid flows is a phenomenon of Lagrangian nature because the process is usually convection dominant. Nearly all numerical investigations of such problems use an Eulerian formulation for the convenience that the computational grids are fixed in space and because the vast majority of field data are collected in an Eulerian reference frame. Several examples are given in this paper to illustrate a modeling approach which combines the advantages of both the Eulerian and Lagrangian computational techniques.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1981

Observations from moored current meters in San Francisco Bay, 1978

Current-meter data collected at eight stations in the San Francisco Bay estuarine system between August 1978 and December 1978 are compiled in this report. The measurements include current speed and direction, and water temperature and salinity (computed from conductivity and temperature). Data are presented in graphical format with each parameter plotted separately.

California↗
USGS1979

A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of a tidal estuary

A finite element model is described which is used in the computation of tidal currents in an estuary. This numerical model is patterned after an existing algorithm and has been carefully tested in rectangular and curve-sided channels with constant and variable depth. One of the common uncertainties in this class of two-dimensional hydrodynamic models is the treatment of the lateral boundary conditions. Special attention is paid specifically to addressing this problem. To maintain continuity within the domain of interest, ‘smooth’ curve-sided elements must be used at all shoreline boundaries. The present model uses triangular, isoparametric elements with quadratic basis functions for the two velocity components and a linear basis function for water surface elevation. An implicit time integration is used and the model is unconditionally stable. The resultant governing equations are nonlinear owing to the advective and the bottom friction terms and are solved iteratively at each time step by the Newton-Raphson method. Model test runs have been made in the southern portion of San Francisco Bay, California (South Bay) as well as in the Bay west of Carquinez Strait. Owing to the complex bathymetry, the hydrodynamic characteristics of the Bay system are dictated by the generally shallow basins which contain deep, relict river channels. Great care must be exercised to ensure that the conservation equations remain locally as well as globally accurate. Simulations have been made over several representative tidal cycles using this finite element model, and the results compare favourably with existing data. In particular, the standing wave in South Bay and the progressive wave in the northern reach are well represented.

California↗
USGS1976

Numerical models of wind-driven circulation in lakes

The state-of-the-art of numerical modelling of large-scale wind-driven circulation in lakes is presented. The governing equations which describe this motion are discussed along with the appropriate numerical techniques necessary to solve them in lakes. The numerical models are categorized into three large primary groups: the layered models, the Ekman-type models, and the other three-dimensional models. Discussions and comparison of models are given and future research directions are suggested.

Applied Mathematical Modelling↗