Delft3D Flexible Mesh Modeling of the Cape Fear Estuary

Ashley Holsclaw

Abstract

The Atlantic coast of the United States is no stranger to hurricanes and tropical storms. In attempt to understand the impact of these storms and the dynamics associated with them, we used Delft3D Flexible Mesh (FM) Suite to create a coastal modeling system of the Cape Fear Estuary using a nested approach with a large, coarse offshore domain that ranges from Cape Lookout, NC to Cape Island, SC with an area spanning roughly 340,000 meters alongshore and 175,000 meters cross-shore. To develop the model, we used topographic and bathymetric data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Coastal Relief Model and shoreline data from the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline Database (GSHHS). We conducted model validation by comparing and analyzing the model’s water level output and harmonic constituents to NOAA’s existing tidal data from two NOAA tide stations located at Wrightsville Beach, NC and Springmaid Pier, SC. By incorporating hurricane wind data from Hurricanes Dorian (2019) and Isaias (2020), we were able to simulate each of these hurricanes with a degree of success. We compared the simulations’ water level outputs to NOAA’s measured tidal data, with both hurricanes having an overall similarity to the recorded water levels with the exception of a slight underestimation of the model. In the future, we intend to create a small, refined estuarian domain to simulate the local hydrodynamics, wind waves, morphological dynamics, and compound flooding in the Cape Fear Estuary. We hope to simulate more hurricanes in order to further our understanding of the impacts of storm surge.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Zhangping Wei

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Email: anh4917@uncw.edu

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