A study on simulation the coastal flow in Soc Trang, Vietnam using the hydraulic model on curvilinear coordinates

Abstract

Coastal flow plays an important role in near-shore sediment transport, affecting the grain size distribution, as well as the shoreline changes. This study focuses on analysing near-shore coastal flow under the influence of wave, wind and tidal combinations along the Soc Trang province coast, Vietnam using the model on a curvilinear coordinate system. The hydraulic model applied is a two-dimensional numerical model based on depth-averaged Reynolds equations in curvilinear coordinates with the advantage of minimizing boundary errors in an area with complex coastline changes. The model was calibrated and validated with data measured at the stations, showing consistency between the observation and simulation. The direction of coastal flow under the conditions of waves and winds depends on the monsoon season. The influence of the Northeast monsoon on the flow velocity is more than the Southwest monsoon. The coastal flow is mainly influenced by tidal currents, in which, the difference in velocity at spring tide is smaller than that at neap tide. On the contrary, wind-affected flow and wave-influenced flow are negligible.