Transport of Particles in a Periodically Forced Flow

Abstract

In oceanography particle transport is a constant: the ocean currents carry the plankton from one place to another. In shallow water trawling and sand deposition can affect positively or negatively certain human activities. For example, sandbars formed by the deposition in areas of low pressure may affect navigation near the coast, but at the same time they can reduce the intensity of a tsunami when approaching a populated coast. In this work we present a numerical solution of particle transport in a flow occurring in a system formed by the channel and an open domain and that is subject to a periodic forcing. For this purpose the equations of motion in the formulation vorticity- stream function are solved with a pseudo spectral method. After the velocity field is calculated, the trajectory of particles is obtained through the solution of a differential equation deduced from first principles. The goal is to model the transport of particles in a tide induced flow. The results we obtain are consistent with some experimental and observational data reported in previous works.