Thesis (Ph.D)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Committe Chair: Terry W. Sturm; Committe Members: Dr. Fotis Sotiropoulos; Committee Members: Dr. Philip J. Roberts; Committee Members: Dr. Donald R. Webster; Committee Members: Dr. Anthony Hayter. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 134 p. : ill., maps (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-134).

Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology and Physical Oceanography)--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2005. / Thesis Advisor(s): Wendell A Nuss. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2006. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-117). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Performance of high resolution mesoscale models has been in a continuous state of refinement since their inception. Mesoscale models have become quite skillful in forecasting synoptic scale events such as mid-latitude cyclones. However, atmospheric forcing becomes a much more complicated process when faced with the challenge of forecasting near topography along the coastline. Phenomena such as gap flows, blocked flow winds and low level stratification become important to predictability at these scales. The problem is further complicated by the dynamics of a frontal passage event. The skill of mesoscale models in predicting these winds is not as well developed. This study examines several forecasts by the Coupled Ocean Atmospheric Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) during frontal passage events for the Winter of 2003-2004. An attempt is made to characterize the predictability of the wind speed and direction both before and after frontal passage along the California coast. Synoptic forcing during this time is strong due to the effects of the mid-latitude cyclones propagate across the Pacific. The study's results indicate that the wind field predictability is subject to several consistent errors associated with the passage of fronts over topography. These errors arise due to difficulty in the model capturing weak thermal advection events and topographic wind funneling. The deficiencies in model representation of topography contributes to these errors. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

Local scour around bridge foundations has been recognized as one of the main causes of bridge failures. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships among field, laboratory, and numerical data for the purpose of improving scour prediction methods for complex bridge piers. In this study, three field sites in Georgia were selected for continuous monitoring and associated laboratory models were fabricated with physical scale ratios that modeled the full river and bridge cross sections to consider the effect of river bathymetry and bridge geometry. Three different sizes of sediment and several geometric scales of the bridge pier models were used in this study to investigate the scaling effect of relative sediment size, which is defined as the ratio of the pier width to the median sediment size. The velocity field for each bridge model was measured by the acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) to explain the complicated hydrodynamics of the flow field around bridge piers as guided by the results from a numerical model. In each physical model with river bathymetry, the comparison between the results of laboratory experiments and the measurements of prototype bridge pier scour showed good agreement for the maximum pier scour depth at the nose of the pier as well as for the velocity distribution upstream of each bridge pier bent. Accepted scour prediction formulae were evaluated by comparison with extensive laboratory and field data. The effect of relative sediment size on the local pier scour depth was examined and a modified relationship between the local pier scour depth and the relative sediment size was presented. A useful methodology for designing physical models was developed to reproduce and predict local scour depth around complex piers considering Froude number similarity, flow intensity, and relative sediment size.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Sept. 23, 2009). Thesis advisor: John S. Schwartz. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.