Challenges in Simulating Pollutant Behavior in Watercourses with Diverse Ecological and Structural Features

Abstract

The article presents the results of simulation studies conducted on a hypothetical watercourse with two simultaneous sources of pollutants of differing types, aimed at better understanding pollutant dispersion in complex riverine environments. The modeled watercourse incorporates a range of structural and natural elements, including a narrow riverbed section, a floodplain with vegetated zones, technical infrastructure (such as bridge supports and a side channel outlet), and various topographical features. The study was conducted using the Finite Volume Method within the ANSYS Fluent computational framework, integrating the Volume of Fluid model (Open Channel version), Species Model (for liquid pollutants), Porous Media Model (to represent vegetated zones), and Discrete Phase Model (for solid particles) into a unified simulation. In last part, a proposal for pollutant management strategies in selected water systems, where the risk of emergency situations is particularly high, is discussed. The primary objective was to identify challenging aspects of pollutant dispersion modeling in order to refine future research directions and methodologies.

Keywords

• computational fluid dynamics simulation
• environmental engineering
• porous media
• conservative modeling
• aquatic systems
• pollutant transport
• numerical analysis