• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.41-51
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• 2013

The tidal creek dependent mass transport characteristic in Gyeong-Gi Bay (west coast of Korea) was studied using field measured data and numerical model. Gyeong-Gi Bay consists of 3 main tidal channels and contains a well-developed vast tidal flat. This region is famous for its large tidal difference and strong current. We aim to study the effect of tidal creek in the tidal flat on the mass exchange between the estuary and the ocean. For numerical application, the application of unstructured grid feature is essential, since the tidal creek has complicated shape and form. For this purpose, the FVCOM is applied to the study area and simulation is performed for 2 different cases. In case A, geographic characteristics of the tidal creek is ignored in the numerical grid and in case B, the tidal creek are constructed using unstructured grid. And these 2 cases are compared with the field measured cross-channel mass transport data. The cross-channel mass transport at the Yeomha waterway mouth and Incheon harbor was measured in June, 9~10 (Spring tide) and 17~18 (Neap tide), 2009. CTD casting and ADCP cross-channel transect was conducted 13 times in one tidal cycle. The observation data analysis results showed that mass transport has characteristic of the ebb dominance Line 1 (Yeomha waterway mouth), on the other hand, a flood dominant characteristic is shown in Line 2 (Incheon harbor front). By comparing the numerical model (case A & B) with observation data, we found that the case B results show much better agreement with measurement data than case A. It is showed that the geographic feature of tidal creek should be considered in grid design of numerical model in order to understand the mass transport characteristics over large tidal flat area.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2012

To calculate the total mass flux that change in dry and flood season in the Yeomha Channel of Gyeonggi Bay, the 13 hour bottom tracking observation was performed from the southern extremity. The value of the total mass flux(Lagrange flux) was calculated as the sum of the Eulerian flux value and stroke drift value and the tidal residual flow was harmonically analyzed through the least-squares method. Moreover, the average during the tidal cycle is essential to calculate the mass flux and the tidal residual flow and there is the need to equate the grid of repeatedly observed data. Nevertheless, due to the great differences in the studied region, the number of vertical grid tends to change according to time and since the horizontal grid differs according to the transport speed of the ship as a characteristic of the bottom tracking observation, differences occur in the horizontal and vertical grid for each hour. Hence, the present study has vertically and horizontally normalized(sigma coordinate) to equate the grid per each hour. When compared to the z-level coordinate system, the Sigma coordinate system was evaluated to have no irrationalities in data analysis with 5% of error. As a result of the analysis, the tidal residual flow displayed the flow pattern of sagging in the both ends in the main waterway direction of dry season. During flood season, it was confirmed that the tidal residual flow was vertical 2-layer flow. As a result of the total mass flux, the ebb properties of 359 cm/s and 261 cm/s were observed during dry and flood season, respectively. The total mass flux was moving the intertidal region between Youngjong-do and Ganghwa-do.