Pentland Firth Tidal Stream Modelling Using Stanford Unstructured Non-hydrostatic Terrain-Following Adaptive Navier-Stokes Simulator (SUNTANS)

SUNTANS is an advanced hydrodynamic numerical model developed by Stanford University.  This model solves the Navier-Stokes equations under incompressibility and Boussinesq approximations, with a large-eddy simulation of the resolved motions.  A three-dimensional SUNTANS PF model has been developed at ICIT.  The domain of the grid is 40 x 45km², covering the Pentland Firth and Scapa Flow.  The boundary conditions are given by the first eight tidal constituents computed by OTIS, a tidal global model validated using TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry data.  The model has been validated against ADCP data and RMS goes from 0.5m/s at deep layers up to 1m/s at the surface.