• Water for future
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.151-162
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• 1995

A two-dimensional stream tube dispersion model is developed to simulate accurately transverse dispersion processes of pollutants in natural channels. Two distinct features of the stream tube dispersion model derived herein are that it employs the transverse cumulative discharge as an independent variable replacing the transverse distance and that it is developed in a natural coordinate system which follows the general direction of the channel flow. In the model studied, Eulerian-Lagrangian method is used to solve the stream tube dispersion equation. The stream tube dispersion equation is decoupled into two components by the operator-splitting approach; one is governing advection and the other is governing dispersion. The advection equation has been solved using the method of characteristics and the results are interpolated onto Eulerian grid on which the dispersion equation is solved by centered difference method. In solving the advection equation, cubic spline interpolating polynomials is used. In the present study, the results of the application of this model to a natural channel are compared with a steady-state flow measurements. Simulation results are in good accordance with measured data.