Numerical simulation of marine currents in the Bunaken Strait, North Sulawesi Indonesia

Abstract

This study intended for the generation of hydroelectric power at suitable area of the strait in order to provide electric current to a close environment. The project uses a threedimensional model of taking flow into account the variation of hydrostatic pressure in the liquid vertical layers. We brought back to a two-dimensional calculation using the shallow water equations. The objectives of the study are getting simultaneous obtaining the velocities of currents by the component of velocities and distributions of the kinetic energy from the numerical results. The Bunaken strait is 5280 m width for an average depth of 130 m. Numerical calculation is simulated using horizontal meshes of 60 side meters. The numerical solutions obtained by using a time step of one second. It found that there was no great difference between 2Dand 3Dnumerical simulations because the effect of flow velocity in the vertical direction is very small. The numerical results have shown that the average current velocities when low and high tide currents are 1.46 m/s and 0.85 m/s respectively. The kinetic energy ranged from 0.01 to 2.54kW/m 2 when low and high tide inthe Bunaken strait area at discharge of 1 Sv, whereas at discharge 2 Sv, 0.11-17.40 kW/m 2 and 0.11-2.77 kW/m 2 (when low and high tide currents). These results can used in the design of turbines for power generation marine currents in the Bunaken strait at depths below 60 meters.