Numerical Simulation Of Three-dimensional Seawater Temperature Field In Meizhou Bay Based On FVCOM And Controlled Analysis With Observational Material

It is the part of recirculating cooling water, which is released into the natural water bodyfrom power plant, that is known as the cooling water discharge. As the coastal zoneexploitation activities were gradually strengthen, more power plants had been constructed oncoastal region. Environmental issues caused by cooling water have attracted broad attention.Research on three-dimensional seawater temperature field in sea area affected by coolingwater carries realistic meaning to the control of marine environmental pollution and the guideto project site selection and design.To simulate hydrodynamic and temperature field in Meizhou Bay, an unstructured grid,finite-volume community ocean model was build up in research process. Synchronousobservational data of current and temperature, which was observed in both spring season andneap season during august2007, was combined with to study the water temperaturedistribution characteristics of the area. The results prove that, by the influence of coolingwater discharge, an obvious radial distribution of seawater temperature from high to low sincethe outlet to peripheral region was obtained. The affected area could easterly reach waterwayin the north of Meizhou island, westerly reach the west side of Huiyu island, northerly reachthe Xiuyu port during flood process, southerly reach the waterway between Dongzhoupeninsula and Dazhu island in the process of ebb tide. It was suggested both by numericalmodel and observational data that, to some degree, sea water temperature distribution wascontrolled by submarine topography. There exist a large amount of waterways and underwaterbanks that block or guide the heat transfer directly, or influence heat transport indirectly bycontrolling current field. The observational data shows that, due to the effect from the coolingwater, vertical non-uniform characteristics of water temperature field became apparent.Temperature difference reaches2℃vertically in Meizhou Bay whose depth was less than50m. Simulation results also illustrate that the nearer the location is to the outlet, the moresignificant the characteristics are. Such characteristics mainly appear in the north of the bayduring flood tide and on the other hand during ebb tide. Meanwhile, because of the buoyancyof the water with high temperature, vertical temperature difference turns remarkable whencooling water get through the area with sudden increased depth. This also reflects the effect of topography on seawater temperature field.