An open boundary condition for application in numerical coastal models

Abstract

Open boundaries (OBs) are usually unavoidable in numerical coastal circulation simulations. At OBs, appropriate open boundary conditions (OBCs) are required and a good OBC should be able to let outgoing waves freely pass to the exterior of a computational domain without creating reflections at the OBs. In the present study, a methodology has been developed to predict two parameters, phase speed c_r and decay time T_f, in a standard OBC formulation, so that the OBC is significantly improved compared to commonly used existing OBCs with specified c_r and T_f. For the conditions where wave period is unknown, the OBC with approximated c_r and T_f may be applied and a test reveals that this OBC is able to yield good results in typical coastal flow conditions. In addition, a Swing-Door Boundary Condition (SDBC) is proposed and tested for application at an offshore open boundary where both incoming and outgoing waves exist.