Scenario-Based Analysis and Design of a Seawater Intake Canal in a Coastal Area

The hydraulic design of an intake channel requires an extensive analysis of several variables for determining a channel configuration meeting a wide range of design criteria and constraints. While terrain elevations and roughness coefficients consider local morphology and vegetation, variables as sea levels account the complexity of modeling tidal fluctuations, ranging from average to extreme weather, all of them characteristic of the Mexican coastal area.   Additionally, other variables relay on multidisciplinary interaction especially mechanical engineering; pumping rates, allowable depths, and intake geometry required for continuous communication. Finally, changes during construction resulted in several reconfigurations of the alignment, and therefore the design itself.

The ability to model a significant number of variables is what makes hydro-technical modeling a valuable asset in engineering design since it allows for a continuous iterative process in assessing the impacts of these and more variables in the required water levels for the cooling water system.

Using the applicable ranges of each variable, several scenarios were constructed that could then be analyzed and compared against each other. These analyses were complemented by an exhaustive state-of-the-art hydraulic study of canal design and the estimation of energy losses. Our results became a decision criterion based on optimal hydraulic performance under different scenarios by effectively conveying how each revision impacted the velocities and water levels within the proposed hydraulic structures.

This detailed modeling approach can benefit similar projects in the future to select a robust design when complex variables play a critical role in hydraulic performance.