The development and implementation of a new, primitive equation ocean circulation model is described. The model employs finite-difference discretization in the horizontal directions and a linear, Galerkin finite-element discretization in the vertical direction. A novel coordinate transformation is employed to retain fourth-order accuracy in the vertical. / The main emphasis of this work is an extensive discussion of the decisions concerning physical, numerical, and computational issues, including discussions of several competitive (and currently interesting) numerical schemes which were not chosen. The model is compared and contrasted with the current generation of ocean circulation models. The performance of the model is tested in several simple cases. Finally, some future applications of the model are outlined. / A series of high-resolution experiments with the barotropic part of the code are used to discuss the flow along a seamount chain, modelled after the Fieberling Guyot and its neighbors. The basic features of the flow are described and the numerical convergence of the model is demonstrated. The full three-dimensional code is applied to a single-seamount geometry with a variety of amplitudes. / Other specific results of this work include: (1) An analysis of the incomplete cancellation of the pressure terms in the transformed coordinate system, with a simple estimate for the spurious acceleration. (2) An analysis of the semi-Lagrangian advection scheme used in some atmospheric models. The damping of the scheme is described in terms of an equivalent Laplacian or biharmonic viscosity coefficient, and formulae are derived for calculating the resolution required to obtain damping below a desired threshold. (3) A discussion of the three-dimensional semi-implicit scheme. It is shown that the scheme becomes physically ill-posed as the stratification of the fluid goes to zero. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: B, page: 1718. / Major Professor: James J. O'Brien. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_78244 |
| Contributors | McCalpin, John D., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 150 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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