Abstract
Inland coastal waters of the State of Washington, United States, are fjord-like in character and feature many passages where substantial tidal currents with speeds up to three meters per second or greater occur. Combined with close proximity to the major metropolitan area of Seattle and easy access to the power grid, the region is a prime candidate within the United States where tidal power generation can play a significant part in the energy portfolio. The Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center is developing a three-dimensional model of tidal and sub-tidal circulation of these waters. The model is based on Stanford University’s SUNTANS code, is non-hydrostatic, and allows wetting and drying of tidal flats. It covers the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, San Juan and Channel Islands, and the southern Georgia Basin with an unstructured triangular mesh of 250m average resolution. The model is forced with adjusted tidal currents from WebTide along open boundaries in the Straits of Georgia and Juan de Fuca. In this paper the barotropic tidal response of the model is reported. The model is calibrated against compiled tidal data for the region. Tidal currents in the channels are characterized in terms of velocity and energy density, and the system response is characterized in terms of the sea surface height variability. Future plans for the model include incorporation of baroclinic processes and representation of in-stream energy conversion arrays, assessment of the impact of the arrays on barotropic and internal tides, and of mixing and flushing of waters in the basins.