Three-dimensional modelling of estuarine turbidity maxima in a tidal estuary

A new numerical model for simulating estuarine dynamics is introduced here. This model, called General Estuarine Transport Model (GETM), has been specifically designed for reproducing baroclinic, bathymetry-guided flows where the tidal range may exceed the mean water depth in large parts of the domain such that drying and flooding processes are relevant. Several physical and numerical features of the model support exact and stable results for such domains. For the physics, high-order turbulence closure schemes guarantee proper reproduction of vertical exchange processes. Among the specific numerical features, generalised vertical coordinates, orthogonal curvilinear horizontal coordinates, high-order TVD advection schemes and stable drying and flooding algorithms have been implemented into GETM. The model is applied here to simulate the dynamics of estuarine turbidity maxima (ETMs), a complex feature present in most tidal estuaries. First, idealised simulations for a two-dimensional domain in the xz space will be shown to reproduce the basic generation mechanisms for ETMs. Then, a realistic three-dimensional simulation of the Elbe estuary in Northern Germany will be carried out. It is demonstrated that for a given forcing situation the model reproduces a stable ETM at the correct location.