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Tracer Gas Transfer Technique for Shallow Bays

by Edward R. Holley, Univ of Texas, Austin, United States,
Charles W. Downer, Univ of Texas, Austin, United States,
George H. Ward, Univ of Texas, Austin, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Water Quality Issues at Fossil Fuel Plants

Abstract:

Developmental field tests using propane and Rhodamine WT tracers were conducted to adapt the tracer gas method for use in shallow bays. A special injection box was built to prevent mixing of heavier bottom water and lighter surface water during injection. The first tests were for evaluating the benefits of short- and long-duration injections. Neither drogues nor a second fluorescent tracer provided reliable determination of travel times for the long injections, so short-duration injections were used. The next tests addressed developing methods of sampling the tracer cloud to obtain reliable results. Based on mathematical modeling, the procedures evolved to sampling the cloud at a variety of horizontal points and at different depths. The analysis uses the samples near the center of the cloud with the highest concentrations. Since the experiments were primarily for developing methodologies, limited quantitative results were obtained. The results indicate that the surface gas transfer coefficients for a given wind speed are generally smaller than would be predicted from previous open sea and laboratory experiments.

Subject Headings: Probe instruments | Surface waves | Surface water | Field tests | Water waves | Bays | Water surface

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