Numerical modeling of hydrodynamic and hydrothermal characteristics in subtropical alpine lake

A three-dimensional, time-dependent hydrodynamic and hydrothermal model was performed and applied to the subtropical alpine Yuan-Yang Lake (YYL) in northeastern region of Taiwan. The model was driven with discharge inflow, heat, and wind stress to simulate the hydrodynamic and hydrothermal in the lake. The model was validated with measured water surface elevation, current, and temperature in 2008. The overall model simulation results are in quantitative agreement with the available field data. The validated model was then used to investigate wind-driven current, mean circulation, and residence time in the YYL. The modeling results reveal that the velocity field along the wind axis present the variations over depth with return current where the velocity at the surface layer is along the wind direction while it is opposite near 1 m below water surface. The simulated mean current indicates that the surface currents flow towards the southwest direction and form a clock-wise rotation. The calculated residence time is strongly dependent on the inflows and wind effects. Regression analysis of model results reveals that an exponential regression equation can be employed to correlate the residence time to change of discharge input. The residence time without wind stress is higher than that with wind effect, indicating that wind plays an important role in lake mixing. The calculated residence time is approximately 2–2.5 days under low inflow with wind effect.