Modeling and Animation of Wastewater Disposal in the Ocean Environment

Abstract

DisPatch, a graphically oriented interactive computer program, has been designed to model the far-field transport of wastewater discharge in the ocean environment Implemented on a microcomputer, DisPatch features high-resolution graphics, menus, and dialog boxes to facilitate user input of boundary conditions in such a way as to be accessible to a large audience of potential users. The DisPatch model is developed from the application of the advection-dispersion equation to a horizontally homogeneous, vertically averaged, turbulent velocity field representing the ocean environment in which a “patch” of discharged wastewater is presumed to travel. Designed to accept either average values or a stochastically generated set of values for initial dilution and trapping height, DisPatch displays the path of each discharge event onscreen as an animation of calculated patch position and dimension. Results are presented in the form of an elevation view of contaminant impact at a user-defined impact zone.