WAVE-CURRENT INTERACTION STUDY ALONG GULF OF KHMBHAT, INDIA

In past few years, process based numerical models are widely recognized as a valuable tool for coastal and oceanic processes. Even long term prediction models are used by many research institute and industries. Gulf of Khambhat is situated in the west coast of India which is strongly influenced by tidal hydrodynamics compare to any other coasts in India. The tidal hydrodynamics along the gulf is so complex due to its geometry, amplification of tidal amplitudes. In the present study, depth averaged numerical model have been developed to understand the tidal hydrodynamics along the gulf using Delft-3D (Deltares, 2013) numerical scheme. The boundary conditions for the numerical model were extracted from the global tidal models. It is estimated that the tidal range varies from 2m at offshore locations to more than 9m at the end of gulf. At some locations, the tide induced currents were estimated to be of the order of about 3ms(-1). To ensure the influence of monsoon waves (June to September) on the tidal hydrodynamics, a coupled numerical model was also developed and the results showed significant variations of water level and velocity due to the influence of waves during monsoon period. The details of numerical models, methodology and results are discussed in this paper.