On 5 July 2024, Carlos Bedon Pineda successfully presented his Master Thesis, which was carried out within the MELODY project!
With his Master Thesis project, Carlos expanded the 2DV study of Laura on sand wave-induced form roughness into a 3D setting. The consideration of a 3D setting allows for the study of the effects of sand wave orientation with respect to the main tidal direction on the induced form roughness. Furthermore, it allows for a more realistic representation of the system by including the effects of Earth’s rotation (Coriolis force).
Similar to Laura’s study, Carlos used four criteria to define form roughness and found that shorter and higher sand waves induce a higher form roughness. Furthermore, the latitude and the orientation of the sand wave field affects the obtained form roughness values, which are maximum for an oblique sand wave field (angles between 40 – 70°).
However, the modeled results are very sensitive on the shape of the idealized sand wave field, specially on its phase – whether the bathymetry starts with a trough or a crest. It is therefore challenging to obtain a single roughness value for now and future studies could focus on these dependencies and why they are so relevant.
You can find Carlos’ report here.
We are very happy to see the first Master student graduate within MELODY and wish Carlos lots of success in his future adventures!
