Gulf

Modeling the Buoyancy-Driven Flow Due to River Discharge on the Texas-Louisisana Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico

Chapter I. Introduction

• Background
• Review of Previous Plume Studies
• The Texas-Louisiana Shelf
• Objectives and Hypotheses
• An Overview of the Dissertation

Chapter II. Methodology

• Primitive Equations
• Special Feature
  • The Smagorinsky scheme, The Mellor and Yamada Level-2.5 Turbulence Closure Model
  • The Multidimensional Positive Definite Advection Transport Algorithm
• Vertically Integrated Vorticity Balance Equation

Chapter III. Numerical Model Formulation

• Orthogonal Curvilinear Grid Generation
• Model Parameters and Boundary Conditions
• Data Sources and Initial Conditions
• Lagrangian Particle Trajectories

Chapter IV. Results and Discussion

• Homogeneous Initial Conditions
  • River Discharge
    • Horizontal Features
    • Vertical Structures
    • Diagnostic Analysis of the Buoyancy-Driven Flow
    • Vorticity Dynamics
    • Distribution of Lagrangian Particles and Turbulent Dispersion
    • Sensitivity Tests
    • Discussion
  • Wind Effects
    • Horizontal Features
    • Vertical Structures
    • Diagnostic Analysis of the Eind Effects
    • Summary and Discussion
• Stratified Initial Conditions
  • Model Spin-Up
  • Spatially Uniform Winds
  • Gridded Winds
  • Distribution of Lagrangian Particles and Turbulent Dispersion
  • Summary

Chapter V. Summary and Concluding Remarks

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C