How to Use
Users are advised to familiarise themselves with:
- The relevant hydrodynamic, ecological, water quality and morphodynamic processes and their interactions.
- The modelling of these processes with numerical models such as Delft3D and/or D-Flow FM.
In practice, users of the modelling system will often be familiar with one of the related disciplines, e.g. morphodynamics or ecology. For these users, it may be useful to gain some basic knowledge in the other relevant discipline(s), or to seek collaboration and share relevant knowledge.
When using Delft3D-FLOW for the hydrodynamics, one can couple the Delft3D-WAQ module using the communication file from the flow model. The Delft3D-FLOW and Delft3D-WAQ models can be build separately, for instance in the associated graphical user interface (GUI). For online-coupling between Delft3D-FLOW and Delft3D-WAQ, first set up a flow model and tick the online-coupling box for WAQ. Furthermore, a coupling interval (indicated as the communication file interval) must be specified (see image). Activating the online coupling with Delft3D-WAQ initiates the WAQ-GUI upon execution of the flow model. This enables setting up the WAQ model like in a stand-alone or offline coupled case. Note that the specified coupling interval should be identical to- or a multiple of the communication file time interval.
More advanced options are available, for instance using keywords, etc. Here we refer to the various Delft3D manuals, for instance on the OSS-manual page page, as the entire biogeomorphological coastal modelling system is elaborately described in these manuals. The standard Delft3D release (trunk) contains a coupling program (with Delft3D-WAQ) for the biogeomorphological coastal modelling system. The bed state module, vegetation population dynamics module, sediment transport module and geomorphological bed updating module are part of the trunk Delft3D-WAQ release.
Delft3D is open source and can be obtained for free at the OSS-site. As of 01-01-2013, Delft3D-WAQ is open source as well, making the biogeomorphological coastal modelling system completely open source. The open-source version of Delft3D-WAQ is also available at the same location as the open-source version of Delft3D-FLOW. Currently, interested users can obtain a precompiled version of the entire Delft3D-suite (including FLOW, WAVE, WAQ, MOR, PART, etc.).
For Delft3D open-source users: the GUI can be be requested here.
Relevant software
Delft3D:
- Source-code (OSS account required)
- https://oss.deltares.nl/web/delft3d, a precompiled version of the entire Delft3D-suite (including FLOW, WAVE, WAQ, MOR, PART, etc.).
- D-Flow FM