open TELEMAC-MASCARET The mathematically superior suite of solvers

Hello,

I’m currently working on a Telemac3D simulations capable of tracking a sewage plume through a marine outfall. After running several successful simulations, I reached the validation phase.

In order to validate my model I used a data set which was collected during a measurement campaign (discharge, wind, temperature and salinity of water column). My goal is to reproduce the same conditions and to compare the results of the model with the observations made during the campaign.

Unfortunately, I’m having a problem; probably a stability problem (See Figure_1). As observed on Figure_1, the water column tends to become homogeneous instead of remaining stratified. I’ve already figured out the source of the problem which is the vertical variation of the water column characteristics (in green on Figure_2), and probably more because of the salinity. My model is working with other sets of data (blue lines for example). Furthermore, I can avoid instabilities by lowering the value of salinity in the first 20m (purple line). Please note that I stopped the source’s discharge to be sure that the effluent does not influence the presented results. So I’m only testing the stability of my initial conditions.

My question is:
Is there a method that would allow me to represent the campaign data (green lines) as accurately as possible so that I can validate the model without having instabilities?
In other words, is it possible to keep the salinity and temperature as exposed without reaching an homogeneous state (Figure_1)?

Thanks for your attention, Julien.