Título

Sand waves generation: a numerical investigation of the Infiernillo Channel in the Gulf of California

Autor

YOVANI MONTAÑO LEY

JOSE NOEL CARBAJAL PEREZ

Nivel de Acceso

Acceso Abierto

Identificador alterno

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojms.2016.63035

Resumen o descripción

"The effect of the coastal geometry on sand bed forms generation has been investigated for a tidal dominated area. Different hypothetical geometries of coastal channels with flat bottoms and unlimited sediment availability were exposed to strong oscillatory tidal currents to simulate the interaction of hydrodynamics and the bedload sediment transport. The hypothetical geometries stand for the idealization of the principal geographic features of the Infiernillo Channel, a coastal area of the Gulf of California where sandbanks and sand waves have been observed. A depth integrated hydrodynamic-numerical model and a parameterized formula to estimate the bedload sediment transport were applied coupled with a sediment conservation equation to determine the sea bottom morphodynamics. Model predictions in the Infiernillo Channel were compared to available satellite imagery. This investigation demonstrates that a vertical integrated numerical model is able to reproduce the development of incipient sand waves that exist in the Infiernillo Channel. Incipient sandbanks and shoals were also simulated. Sand waves with wavelengths of about 200 m were calculated on the same locations where sand waves actually exist. A crucial finding of this research was to show that the geometry of a shallow water basin and the presence of tidal velocity gradients associated with abrupt changes in the coastline alignment were critical in determining the sand-bed pattern generation. We demonstrate that a vertical variation of tidal currents is not necessary to generate sand waves."

Editor

Scientific Research Publishing Inc

Fecha de publicación

julio de 2016

Tipo de publicación

Artículo

Versión de la publicación

Versión publicada

Formato

application/pdf

Sugerencia de citación

Ley, Y. and Carbajal, N. (2016) Sand Waves Generation: A Numerical Investigation of the Infiernillo Channel in the Gulf of California. Open Journal of Marine Science, 6, 412-422. doi: 10.4236/ojms.2016.63035.

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