AN ADAPTIVELY REFINED, FINITE-VOLUME MODEL OF WIND-INDUCED CURRENTS IN LAKE NEUSIEDL

Abstract

Hydrodynamic processes greatly determine the morphological and ecological evolution of lakes such as Lake Neusiedl, which is extremely shallow and has an extended and patchy reed cover. The hydrodynamic response to prevailing wind events is explored by two-dimensional numerical modelling, including wind-current interaction and non-uniform wind shear stress distribution in the physical description. The high spatial variability of the processes justifies the use of an adaptive technique that adjusts the mesh resolution dynamically to the estimated solution error, without the intervention of the modeller. The solution algorithm incorporates a MUSCL-Hancock-type finite volume scheme on a quadtree-based Cartesian mesh. The model is used to predict representative steady-state circulations and the unsteady currents during a documented wind event. The simulated flow fields are compared to observations.