Continuous source in tidal flow: A numerical study of the transport equation

A detailed comparative numerical study of a continuous source discharging in a tidal flow has been performed. The advective term in the one-dimensional transport equation consists of a constant freshwater velocity and an isotropic oscillating component. Various finite element solutions are investigated. Compared to the analytical solution of the dynamic steady state concentration, the numerical results for typical estuarine conditions clearly indicate the superiority of the collocation method with Hermite basis functions. An extended Fourier series analysis that accounts for the source condition is developed to explain the numerical behaviour of the different schemes.