A study on marine physical characteristics around an underwater reef using computational fluid dynamics

The marine physical characteristics occurring around the underwater reef in waters more than 100 km away from the land were analyzed through computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A fixed jacket structure so-called Ieodo Ocean Research Station (I-ORS) for marine and atmospheric observations is installed on this underwater reef, and marine observation data have been continuously produced for 20 years. However, there is a concern that observation data may be affected by the underwater reef. We built a numerical modeling framework based on observational data and analyzed the results to find out how underwater reef affects I-ORS. As a result, it was confirmed that various marine physical characteristics (wake region, local upwelling region, suspended sediments, vortex shedding, etc.) appear around the underwater reef. Especially, particle analysis was performed considering the tidal cycle and density stratification to identify the mechanism of suspended sediments generation. Consequently, we were able to find a pattern for the diffusion of suspended sediments around the underwater reef and it is possible to understand various marine physical characteristics around the underwater reef.