About the advection-diffusion equation Implicit methods overestimate the fluxes by a value of the same order and also
ds overestimate the fluxes by a value of the same order and also introduce a The correlations to compute sensible heat transfer and latent heat transfer are identical. In
The advection-diffusion equation states that the rate of change of a property depends on the
divergence of the advective and diffusive fluxes.
The advective flux can be high and its contribution for the rate of change of a property can
be negligible. Idem for the diffusive flux. Why can it be neglectable? The divergence is the
extent to which there is more of some quantity exiting an infinitesimal region than entering it.
If it is different from zero it means that it is a source or sink at some point. What contributes to
the change of a property is its divergence, so even if there is a big flux incoming, it can be
balanced by an out coming flux.
Why does not radiation appear in the advection-diffusion equation?The advection-diffusion
equation also called convection-diffusion equation describes a physical phenomenon where
particles, energy or other properties are transferred inside a system due to diffusion
(associated with the molecules Brownian movement and dependent on the property gradient)
or advection(heat and mass being transported by the flow of a fluid).Convection can be seen
as a mixture of these two. However, radiation does not fall into any of these categories so it
has an independent equation to describe it, depending on emissivity and Stephan-boltzman
constant.
Why do we call Heat equation to the Temperature evolution equation? Why not write
an equation for enthalpy instead of an equation for temperature?We call heat equation
because it describes the evolution of heat or variation of temperature in a given region
over time (its a differential equation whose solution provides the temperature distribution in a
stationary medium). The way the temperature develops in the control volume is parallel to the
way the heat in that body evolves. We dont write an equation for enthalpy because enthalpy
is a function of state that depends on temperature, pressure and volume. Therefore, it
wouldnt make sense to build an equation more complex to due to the fact that temperature
would also be included.
Why are diffusivity units m2/s for any property?.Diffusivity depends on:velocity of molecules
(m/s), the larger this is, the faster they transfer their properties and on the distance (m)
traveled by each molecule up to collide with another molecule (the larger is the distance, the
higher is diffusivity).
The product of these two properties is the diffusivity
Velocity[LT-1]*Length [L] = Diffusivity [L2T-1]
Why are Metallic materials good heat conductors? Metallic materials structure is called sea
of free electrons, which means that the electrons are able to move freely along the material
and translates in properties such as high conductivity. This favors the collisions due to thermal
vibrations of the electrons passing the energy more quickly from one point to the other.
About the numerical methods
Numerical methods solve equations in an algebraic form. The physical principle is the same
as that described by the corresponding partial differential equations. Why do algebraic
equations have a certain ambiguity compared to differential equations?Because in algebraic
equations one only solves the first two terms of the Taylors series, neglecting the other factors
and losing accuracy in comparison with the differential equations.
Errors in numerical models appear as Numerical diffusion or in terms of numerical
instabilities. What is numerical diffusion and what is an instability? Difficulty with the
computer simulation, where the simulation medium exhibits a higher diffusivity than the real
medium. The algorithm assumes uniform concentration inside the control volume and this may
not be true. Numerical Instability: The coefficients (k) multiplying by the variables (initial
concentration) cannot be negative. If they are negative, it means that the larger the property
is in a point, the smaller its new value in the calculating point. If the concentration becomes
negative, it means that there is more destruction than the amount available. This is physically
impossible! Advection and diffusion transport material from one point to another. If a property
increases in one point, it can only decrease in the other. Explicit Method Ct=(1-kdt)*Ct+dt
Implicit Method Ct+dt=Ct/(1+kdt)
The courant number is an important parameter to understand numerical stability. What
does it represent? The courant number is the ratio between the displacement of the fluid
during a time step and the spatial size of the grid. When it is higher than 1 the whole content
of the cell will be removed during a time step and consequently the assumption of explicit
models that the fluxes can be computed as a function of the concentration ct during the whole
time step is not true.Cr=udt/dx
In explicit methods the courant number cannot exceed 1. How is this related to stability? A
model is unstable if errors are amplified. the influence of a point on its neighbors through
advection or diffusion cant be negative meaning that increasing the concentration in one
point can never cause a reduction in its neighboring points. Since the coefficient of Ci+1 is
always negative, the bigger this concentration, the smaller will be Ci. Since all the terms are
being multiplied by Cr, the higher it is, the bigger will be the error growth rate.
Why are implicit methods more stable than explicit methods? In explicit methods the flux
during a time step is proportional to the area of the rectangle with sides lengths t an Ct,
while in implicit methods is proportional to t an Ct+t. So in explicit methods if the slope of
the curve is positive it underestimates the value, whereas if it is negative they overestimate it.
phase error.
Are implicit methods more precise than explicit methods? No, they have the same
magnitude of errors. However implicit methods generate more stable algorithms. Its
interesting to say that the more accurate method is the semi-implicit (the average of them
both). t*= t+ t (semi-implicit method) gives the maximum accuracy. Values at t*= t+ t They are even related by the Bowens ratio, which states: es-saturation vapor pressure; es,a-
can be obtained averaging the values of the properties calculated at time t and time t+ t. The
price to pay for this accuracy improvement is the increasing of the number of calculations to
perform.
Why do central differences for advection violate the transportive property of
advection?Because one of the coefficients is always negative if there is no diffusion.
Although central differences violate the transportive properties they can generate stable
algorithms if the grid Reynolds number does not exceed 2. Why can diffusion stabilize
process is even more important because we have to remove vapour from the free surface in
central differences? The use of a downstream (a frente) value (Ci+1) to calculate the spatial
derivative shows that the information has been used backwards. Physically diffusion
propagates the information in any direction (according to the local gradients). When the
advective flux is calculated using downstream information, one can remove matter from a
control volume that is not there to be removed. This is the mechanism that generates negative
concentrations. The method is unstable because those errors are amplified in time. The
consideration of (enough) diffusion makes the method stable, but does not avoid the
generation of negative concentrations. The upstream discretization was proposed first to avoid
this problem.
Why can central differences generate negative concentrations? Because this method doesnt
respect the transportivity property of advection. According to this method the volume i will
get downstream information about the concentration through the average process. This
generates instabilities and creates conditions to obtain negative concentration values.
Is the upwind method always better than central differences? No, for example if diffusion is
dominant, then central differences method is better because it will have second order precision
generating more precise results, whereas the other has a 1st order precision.
About the boundary and initial conditions
The boundary conditions are part of the solution (they are the solution along the boundary).
Thus that means that the solution is bad when we have uncertainty on boundaries? The
boundary conditions will not only affect the values at the boundaries, but they are part of the
solution for every cell. If these values are far away from the real ones, the solution will not be
accurate. We can mitigate this by having more cells, considering boundary values that are
close to the real ones, and the most accurate solution will be in the middle of the cells where
the effect of the boundary conditions is minimal. The initial conditions can be mitigated if we
allow the problem to reach the steady state (equilibrium). Initial conditions are often not
important because natural systems are dissipative and open, i.e. they exchange through the
open boundaries and tend to forget the initial information. For the same reason boundary
conditions are very important.
What kind of boundary conditions can we impose in numerical models? How do they
compare with the boundary conditions imposed in the resolution of partial differential
equations (Neumann-gradient/Dirichlet-imposed value). We can impose two different types
of boundary conditions. First we can impose values of a property in the beginning and in the
end. These are called Dirichl conditions. This way we dont need to find an equation to
compute these values. Second we can impose a gradient between the two extremes of the
control volume. This procedure corresponds to the Neumann conditions. When no information
is provided about the gradient (flux), it is a simple and correct approach to consider it null. In
numerical methods the same happened: we had to impose a concentration of water entering
the channel and the diffusion (gradient) for the first and last sections of the cv.
For the initial conditions their relevance disappears after the spin up time.
In a river it is common to assume that the heat flux across the bottom is null. This has some
error. How does it influence the value of the computed water temperature? How could we
improve this boundary condition? The computed water temperature will be slightly warmer
because there is a heat flux that is not being considered. This value wont be much larger
because with the rise in temperature the radiative flux will be bigger as will be the latent heat
flux (more water moisture due to higher temperatures) and the sensible heat. For this reason,
disregarding this value is most of the times acceptable. It would be easily calculated, though.
We would only have to include in the temperature calculation a new heat flux dependent on
the temperature and conduction of the river bed.
Evaporation is an important mechanism to reduce the temperature of a water body (or of
any wet surface). What are the factors controlling it? Why is the wind velocity more
important than the water velocity for the rate of evaporation?The factors controlling it are
the relative humidity fraction in the atmosphere, the wind speed, and the temperature. The
wind speed is more important than the water speed because it defines the rate of change of
humid air above the water. Changing the humid air with fresh air above the river will have a
bigger impact because the humidity gradient will be greater.
the former the temperature difference is the driving force, while in the latter the driving
force is the gradient of water vapor partial pressure at the water temperature and at the
atmospheric temperature and the transfer coefficient has the same shape. Why is this
so?Because both processes are dominated by a convective heat transfer mechanism, and thus
the transfer coefficient must have a similar format even if the driving forces are not the same.
saturation vapor pressure at atmospheric temp. r-relative humidity fraction B=sensible/latent
= =
,
In case of gases surface fluxes also depend on the partial pressures, but the exchange
coefficient is a function of water turbulence and is independent of the wind speed. Why is
this so? Water has a thermal capacity much higher than the air and as a consequence the heat
enough to change the air temperature has a small impact on the water temperature. As a
consequence, the mixing happening inside the water column has a minimal effect on the
surface water temperature. On the contrary, that heat has a big influence on the surface air
temperature and consequently we have to remove that air from the free surface. For that we
need turbulence in the atmosphere. If we think about water moisture from evaporation, the
order to low the relative humidity. On the contrary the dissolution capacity of water is low and
consequently the water close to the free surface very quickly equilibrates the partial pressure
in the atmosphere and consequently to maintain the flux we need to replace the water close to
the free surface, i.e. we need turbulence in the water column.
Anthropogenic discharges can be of point or diffuse type. Point sources are usually easy to
characterize, both in terms of flow rate and concentrations. Write the equation that gives
the modification of concentration in the discharge cell due to a point discharge.
Mt=vol*Ct, Ct- concetrao, Cd-discharge concentration, Vol-cells volume, Qd-discharge
Diffuse pollution is presently the major source of pollution in Europe (point sources are very
much controlled). The excess of irrigation in agriculture enhances its impact on river water
quality. How does this happen? With the excess of irrigation of agricultural fields, what
happens is that a part of the water is absorbed by the plants and the other part which is not
absorbed can flow to the nearby rivers (or to underground reservoirs) carrying organic matter
and pesticides residues. The pesticide residues problem is evident. Pesticides are venom and as
that they can harm the water bodies ecosystems and the water quality. Organic matter is a
much more complex issue. Photosynthetic organisms release oxygen into the water. When the
oxygen saturation is reached the water starts loosing it to the atmosphere by the form of small
bubbles in a quite fast process. The same amount of O2 liberated in photosynthesis will be
required to oxidize the organic matter present in the water body. As additional organic matter
was discharged by the excess irrigation the previous equilibrium will be destroyed and thus the
concentration of DO will decrease significantly due to the fact that O2 release is faster than its
absorption and to the fact that demand of oxygen by the system has also increased. This has
high impact in the quality of the water.
About the Results
The 1D advection diffusion model can only simulate linear systems. It is not adequate to
simulate ordinary lakes, but it could be used to simulate a long and narrow lake (e.g. a
channel without flow). In this case the velocity would be null and there was no advection.
How would an instantaneous emission in a cell evolve? What would be the final solution if
there was no decay? And with decay? Without decay the concentration would tend to a
constant value in the lake due to diffusion. With decay this concentration would tend to
disappear, the velocity and the reach of the emission of the lake would depend on the amount
of diffusion and the decay rate.
How would the solution evolve in that lake if there was a continuous emission without
decay? Is it possible to get a stationary solution with decay? With a continuous emission and
no decay the pollutant concentration would be constantly increasing and spreading out by
diffusion from the discharge cell to all the cells, and there wouldnt be a stationary solution.
If there was velocity and no diffusion what should be the evolution? In reality there is
numerical diffusion and the concentration will decay. Will the decaying rate due to
numerical diffusion be the same along the whole channel?Theres only advection
In case of a channel with advection and two point discharges, what would be the shape of
the solution if there was no decay? And with decay?
No decay (with 2 discharges): Decay (with 2 discharges):
Legislation imposes maximum (or minimum) values for variables impacted by man,
including for temperature and for biochemical pollutants. A treatment prior to discharge is
necessary when the untreated discharge is too high. Show with an equation that the
maximum values depend on size of the river (cross section) and on the river discharge.
 property there. Seeing the way around, the Atmosphere transports property to the interface,
increasing its value and consequently the gradient in the water increasing the flux.
The temperature model shows a daily cycle. How does solar radiation contribute for the _____________________________________________________________________________
amplitude of that cycle? And sensible and latent heat fluxes?One cycle is more or less one Why are central differences unstable without diffusion? They violate the transportive
day long. Between the lower point and the upper point it retains heat. During the night the property. A downstream point learns about the concentration upstream when the average is
heat will go down. If Tair>Twater we can increase this temperature. The solar radiation is a net used to compute the value of the property on the surface of the control volume. As a
input of heat increases the amplitude of the daily cycle the water receives solar radiation consequence, if the downstream value is large compared with the upstream value one can
and loses heat through humidity and evaporation (which is higher in hotter days). obtain a value at the interface large enough to empty (or make negative) the new upstream
Evap=h(Pwater-Pair). value. This always happens when the upstream value is null and the downstream value is not.
About identical problems Why can diffusion stabilize the method? Because diffusion transports properties against the
What would be the modifications of the model necessary to simulate:A solar oven?There is gradient. If the concentration downstream is higher than upstream it generates an upstream
no advection. Wed only need one cell and wed need to compute the heat surface boundary flux. If this flux is larger than the advective flux, it means that advection is transporting
condition in the bottom. Would work if the container had a black bottom the light is not something that came from downstream and this physically meaningful. Diffusion cant
reflected back to the atmosphere; it has to be contained. advection = 0. however be so strong that would empty the downstream cell. So there is a limitation to the
The evolution of the temperature in the ground, without rainThere is water evaporation that value of the diffusion number.
can be evaporated inside the soil. We should have the spils and gas. We should consider the Can Central differences be used when advection is the dominant process? No. The grid
evaporation inside each cell and then diffusion in the soil. Reynolds number is limited by 2.
The evolution of the temperature of the ground with rainThe water will move downwards If diffusion is dominant is better to use central differences or upwind? In this case central differences
and will carry heat from the top to the deeper layers. are better because they have second order precision and thus generate more accurate results.
What if the algorithm was implicit? Would it be stable? Yes, but it could still generate negative
The evolution of the temperature in a rectangular finAdvection=0. Theres conduction from
concentrations that could be problematic in ecological models since they would transform sources
one end of the channel to the other end.
into sinks and vice-versa. In the implicit calculation the values used to compute fluxes are the values
The evolution of the temperature in a triangular finReduce the cross section of the at t+dt. As a consequence if the value inside a cell becomes negative, the amount removed from the
rectangular. The difference to the rectangular is just the cross section. We have to consider the cell becomes positive. However the value that enters would become negative because it is the
area of each cell, not an uniform cross section. average with the left cell. Anyhow, globally the implicit algorithm is more stable than the explicit.
The temperature across a wallLike in the case of a fin, theres only conducton. And if the method was upwind implicit? In this case the method would be unconditionally stable and
The temperature along a pipeExactly the same. The pipe is getting heat from from the concentrations would never get negative. The method uses the new values to compute fluxes and
surface. Convection coefficient x gradient of temperature. thus, if a value would become negative the flux would be reversed (would enter instead of leaving)
and thus the concentration can never get negative.
Why are implicit methods unconditionally stable? UPWIND The explicit method the amount that
leaves a cell is physically limited by what is inside the cell at time t, i.e. the Courant number is limited
by 1. In the implicit method what leave the cell is what will be there at time t+dt and thus there is
no limitation. If there would be nothing in the cell, nothing would leave. In the explicit method if one
removes from one cell more than what is inside, the concentration can become negative.In the implicit
method what is leaving the cell is a function of what would be there at the end of the time step and
consequently the new value can never be negative.
What about the central-differences? In this case, even implicit methods can generate negative
concentrations, but the values are bounded by the positive concentrations in the neighboring cells.
Why are central implicit diferences more stable than explicit ones? Because in the explicit method
what leaves the cell is what is there at time t while in the implicit method is what it will be there at
time t+dt.In the explicit case one can get very low negative values when the courant number is large,
while in the implicit method the average value computed at the interface will always be positive and
consequently the negative values are bounded by this condition.
OD-BOD K0=3.9*sqrt(u/h) u-average velocity in the water column/h-water depth
Csat=Kh*pg Kh-henrys constant [mol/L.atm] - depends on the temperature and type of gas. Pg is the
partial pressure of the gas [atm]. If the water is oversaturated, the oxygen is lost to the atmosphere.
The Csat decreases with temperature. Chama- eutrofizao um fenmeno causado pelo excesso
de nutrientes numa massa de gua, provocando um aumento excessivo de algas. Estas, por sua vez,
fomentam o desenvolvimento dos consumidores primrios.Este aumento da biomassa pode levar a
uma diminuio do oxignio dissolvido, provocando a morte e consequente decomposio de muitos
organismos
If lateral discharges are the main source of BOD one can assume that there are no sources.

The units of k are day-1.

Exchanges between air and water: The flux depends on the vertical gradient and on
diffusivity, i.e. on the capacity to remove the exchanged material from the interface zone. In
this case, the vertical flux is downwards. Inside the water the property located at the interface
is removed downwards, decreasing the concentration. The atmosphere replies locating more