MIT Sea Grant Researchers Hope to Mitigate Coastal Flooding Problems with New Model
MIT Sea Grant Assistant Director for Research Stefano Brizzolara and visiting PhD student Riccardo Angelini Rota are working on a new numerical model to simulate the complex physics that happen in the near-shore region to waves. Due to climate change, they explain, the level of the ocean will rise significantly in the next fifty to one hundred years. Their goal is to simulate the risks of flooding in different areas of the Northeast region in advance in order to be prepared and react with mitigation or adaptation strategies. The model is based on a Smoothed Particles Hydrodynamic (SPH) solver, which helps them reproduce the hydrodynamic phenomena in coastal areas, specifically in the surf region. Brizzolara and Rota plan to reproduce problems like over-topping in a sea wall or in a sea structure and the run up of waves. They explain that the reason this new model is so unique is because many of the models that currently exist are able to arrive quite close to the coast but not in the particular region where the non-linear phenomena they want to record occur. With this new numerical method, the researchers seek to extend the predictions of the current numerical models to the areas more affected by inundations and flooding.
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