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Modeling the Effects of Topography Heterogeneity and Discharge Variations on Riverbed Hydrodynamics in a 30-kilometer-long Reach over a Nine-year Period using OpenFOAM
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  • Yunxiang Chen,
  • Jie Bao,
  • Yilin Fang,
  • Timothy D. Scheibe,
  • Marshall C Richmond,
  • William A. Perkins,
  • Huiying Ren,
  • Xuehang Song,
  • Zhuoran Duan,
  • Zhangshuan Hou,
  • Xiaoliang He
Yunxiang Chen
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jie Bao
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Yilin Fang
Pacific Northwest National Lab
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Timothy D. Scheibe
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Marshall C Richmond
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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William A. Perkins
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Huiying Ren
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Xuehang Song
PNNL
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Zhuoran Duan
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Zhangshuan Hou
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Xiaoliang He
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Abstract

Quantifying the multiscale feedback between hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry is key to reliable modeling of river corridor systems. However, accurate and efficient hydrodynamics models over large spatiotemporal scales have not yet been established due to limited surveys of riverbed roughness and high computational costs. This work presents a semi-automated workflow that combines topographic and water stage surveys, computational fluid dynamics modeling, distributed wall resistance modeling, and high-performance computing to simulate flow in a 30-kilometer-long reach at the Columbia River during 2011-2019. The results show that this workflow enables a high accuracy in modeling water stage at all seven survey locations during calibration (1 month) and validation (65 months) periods. It also enables a high computational efficiency to model the streamflow during a 58-month solution-time within less than a 6-day wall-clock-time with mesh number, time step, and CPU hours of about 1.2 million, 3 seconds, and 1.1 million hours, respectively. Using the well-validated results, we show that riverbed dynamic pressure is randomly distributed over all spatiotemporal scales with its cross-sectional average values approximately quantified by a normal distribution with a mean and standard deviation of -0.353 m and 0.0352 m; bed shear stress is affected by flowrate and large- and small-scale topographic features with cross-sectional maximum values following a smooth but asymmetric distribution with 90% of its value falling between 5 Pa and 35 Pa; and hydrostatic pressure is influenced by flowrate and large-scale topographic features with cross-sectional maximum values quantified by a discontinuous and skewed distribution determined by streamwise topographic variations.