Thermal Modeling

EFDC+ has been enhanced with a range of heat exchange options, providing you increased flexibility when simulating complex thermal systems.

Surface Heat Exchange Options

Several significant enhancements have been made to the heat module in EFDC+ 12.1. There are now five options available for the Surface Heat Exchange simulation process:

  • No Atmospheric Linkage
  • Full Heat Balance
  • COARE3.6
  • Equilibrium Temp (CE-QUAL-W2 Method)
  • External Equilibrium Temperature

Solar radiation is often the most crucial surface heat flux component as a heat source for a water body. The enhancements in EFDC+ 12.1 allow users to select the appropriate computation method of solar radiation for the surface heat exchange. The options available include:

  • No Solar Radiation
  • Absorb 100% Solar Radiation in Surface Layer
  • Use fast/slow Extinction Coefficients
  • Spatially & Temporally Varying Extinction Coefficients
Thermal discharge from nuclear power plant diffusers.

Heat Coupled Ice Modeling

EFDC+ implements a robust ice sub-model where ice formation and melt is simulated using the coupled heat model.  This feature is not available in other versions of EFDC or other environmental hydrodynamic modeling tools such as MIKE3 or DELFT3D.

Forced Evaporation

Forced evaporation is defined as the additional evaporation in receiving waters due to increased temperatures from the discharge of heated cooling water. Federal and state agencies now consider forced evaporation to be a consumptive use for thermal electric power plants.  EFDC+ has the necessary toolbox to provide spatial and temporal evaluations of forced evaporation.