Coastal Sediment Transport Modeling of Offshore Wind Farm Construction Activities

Presentation Description: The USACE Particle Tracking Model (PTM) is a sediment transport model using a Langrangian particle tracking approach specifically designed for coastal and dredging projects. A key input for this model is hydrodynamic forcings, which can be input as either 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional datasets. PTM uses different particles advection schemes when applying 2D or fully 3D hydrodynamic forcing datasets. A 3D approach is critical to applications where interaction with native bed is significant, or vertical particle movement and settling are concerned. In this presentation, we examined several commonly used installation methods used in offshore windfarm and cable construction by modeling sediment transport from seafloor disturbance subject to hydrodynamic current and wave actions. The time series of hydrodynamic currents were simulated using Delft3D FM for which the domain encompassed the entire Long Island Sound and a subset of the OCS off the New England coast. Results of the sediment transport modeling were used to support COP permitting application with BOEM.