Coursed offered within PPGERHA (Graduate Program on Water Resources and Environmental Engineering), PPGEA (Graduate Program of Environmental Engineering) and the Graduate course on Environmntal Engineering (CGEA) from the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil.

UFPR students should subscribe via the SIGA system of each program respectively:  PPGERHA (ERHA755 – TÓPICOS ESPECIAIS II Modelling with Delft3D);  PPGEA (EAMB7057 Modelling with Delft3D). CGEA (TEA038B). Limited number of participants.

Coursed offered completely in english.

Créditos: 3 (45 h)
Lecturers: Tobias Bleninger (contact) and Rafael Bueno
Lecture hours: Mondays and Wednesdays: 13:30 – 17:30, LICA – Laboratório Integrado de Computação Avançada (subsolo da biblioteca)

Format

Technical requirements are listed as follows:
• Internet connection
• Up to date PC or notebook with Windows Operational System (the course only provides compiled software executables for Windows)
The course will be offered within the platform Microsoft Teams, where files will be provided and shared and chats, conferencing and scheduling will be handled.

Context / Background

Hydrodynamic modelling is an essential method to study scenarios for hydro-environmental problems, such as pollutant or cooling water discharges, sediment transport, lake eutrophication, river training, etc. Delft3D is a world leading 3D modeling suite to investigate hydrodynamics, sediment transport and morphology and water quality for fluvial, estuarine and coastal environments. Since 2011, the Delft3D flow (FLOW), morphology (MOR) and waves (WAVE) modules are available in open source. The hydrodynamic module Delft3D-FLOW is a multidimensional hydrodynamic simulation program that calculates non-steady flow and transport phenomena resulting from tidal and meteorological forcing. The primary purpose of the computational model Delft3D-FLOW is to solve various one-, two- and three-dimensional, time-dependent, non-linear partial differential equations related to hydrostatic free-surface flow problems on a structured orthogonal grid. The equations are formulated in orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinates on a plane or in spherical coordinates on the globe. The hydrodynamic module is based on the shallow water equations. The equations are solved with a robust and highly accurate solution procedure.

Some supported features are:
• Propagation of long waves (barotropic flow);
• Density gradients due to a non-uniform temperature and salinity concentration distribution (density driven flows);
• Transport of dissolved material and pollutants;
• Transport of sediments, including erosion, sedimentation and bed load transport;
• Many options for boundary conditions, such as water level, velocity and discharge boundaries
• Simulation of drying and flooding of inter-tidal flats;
• Turbulence modelling to account for the vertical turbulent viscosity and diffusivity;
• Online visualization of model parameters enabling the production of animations.

Obs.: The course mainly uses the structured grid version, however examples are provided also for the flexible mesh version. 

Topics

Review of governing equations of Fluid Mechanics for environmental systems. Revision of numerical methods and stability, as well as data handling. Introduction into grid generation. Introduction on bathymetry interpolation. Modelling hydrodynamics and density effects. Post processing. Introduction to pre-processing tools for universal model setups for coastal waters. Revision of governing processes of sediment transport and water quality modeling. Applications for coastal waters, rivers and lakes.

Objectives

Create the ability to plan, setup, and execute 2 and 3D hydrodynamic simulations with Delft3D, and using pre and post-processing features.

Recommended pre-requisites: Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Mathematics.

Calendar

Inicio: 15 de setembro 2025

Before the course: Please register for the free Open-Source Licence at: https://oss.deltares.nl/web/delft3d/source-code some weeks before the course. Further instructions on installation will be provided throughout the course. 

Cronograma:

No. | Day | Date | Content

1 | Mon. | 15/09/2025 | Course and participants’ introduction. Introduction to Delft3D. Grid system. Interface.
2 | Wed. | 17/09/2025 | Grid generation with RGFGrid
– | Mon. | 22/09/2025 | no class – CGEA academic week
– | Wed. | 24/09/2025 | no class – CGEA academic week
3 | Mon. | 29/09/2025 | Simplified 2D simulations for reservoir (inflow and spillway). Basic visualizations with Quickplot
4 | Wed. | 01/10/2025 | 2D simulations with other boundary conditions (including wind). Comparative visualizations with Quickplot and post-processing
5 | Mon. | 06/10/2025 | 2D simulations with varied boundary conditions (time series). Rectangular grid and simulations with rectangular grids. Z-grid
6 | Wed. | 08/10/2025 | Bathymetric interpolation with Quickin. Simulations with modified bathymetry and comparisons, and simulations with restart file
7 | Mon. | 13/10/2025 | Three-dimensional modeling, tracers, and drifters
8 | Wed. | 15/10/2025 | Theory and simulations of temperature and salinity effects, thermal stratification
– | Mon. | 20/10/2025 | no class – SIEPE week
– | Wed. | 22/10/2025 | no class – SIEPE week
– | Mon. | 27/10/2025 | no class – recess
9 | Wed. | 29/10/2025 | 2D simulations of river systems
10 | Mon. | 03/11/2025 | Coastal waters simulation
11 | Wed. | 05/11/2025 | Theory of sediment transport simulations. Simulations of sediment transport and siltation (morphological variations)
12 | Mon. | 10/11/2025 | Theory and simulation of water quality
– | Wed. | 12/11/2025 | Exercise classes (attendance not mandatory)
– | Mon. | 17/11/2025 | Exercise classes (attendance not mandatory)
– | Wed. | 19/11/2025 | Exercise classes (attendance not mandatory)
– | Mon. | 24/11/2025 | no class – professors absent
– | Wed. | 26/11/2025 | no class – professors absent
– | Mon. | 01/12/2025 | no class – entrance exam
13 | Wed. | 03/12/2025 | FINAL presentation
– | Mon. | 08/12/2025 | no class – finals week
– | Wed. | 10/12/2025 | no class – finals week
– | Mon. | 15/12/2025 | Final exam

Exam

The course certificate requires:

• Written exam P1 / Prova escrita P1 (individual) – trabalho de modelagem
• Oral exam P2 / Prova oral P2 (apresentação e arguição)
• Grade N / Nota N = 2/3P1 + 1/3P2
•         se N ≥ 7   aproved / aprovado com nota final N_F = N
•         se N < 4   failed / reprovado
•         se 4 ≤ N < 7 final exam / prova final F
•                    se (F+N)/2 ≥ 5 aprovado com nota final N_F = (F+N)/2
•                    se (F+N) < 5 reprovado
• Presence / Presença: > 25%
• Written work will be for a specific simulation project (data provided by course or own data can be used too). The work should be summarized as report, including the following items:
  • site description
  • available data and boundary conditions
  • model description and setup
  • model simulations
  • post-processing (figures, graphs, animations, comparison of scenarios)
  • being summarized in a project report

References and additional information

• Text books and manuals:
  • Carlos Ruberto Fragoso Júnior; Regina Camara Lins; Tobias Bleninger; “MECÂNICA DOS FLUIDOS PARA ENGENHARIA E CIÊNCIAS AMBIENTAIS“; ABRHidro, ISBN 978-85-8868-646-5
  • Fischer, H.B., E.J List, R.C.Y. Koh, J. Imberger and N.H. Brooks (1979) Mixing in inland and coastal waters, Academic Press, San Diego, CA
  • Delft3D – Modelo 3D hidrodinâmico e de transporte e qualidade de agua – User Manual (pdf)
• Model data:
  • Using Delft3D Dashboard (Webinar, Manual, Installation)
  • Using Community models, such as http://www.d3d-baydelta.org/; http://www.agmcommunity.org/; http://baiasdobrasil.ivig.coppe.ufrj.br/; http://guanabaralimpa.deltares.nl/; https://www.alplakes.eawag.ch/models; http://brazilianseaobservatory.org;  Paranapanema Open Models (Executive summary (pdf). WEB-GIS platform. Open-Models)
  • Global Bathymetry: https://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/gridded_bathymetry_data/
  • Bathymetry for Brazilian coast: https://smcbrasil.paginas.ufsc.br/bases-de-dados/batimetria/
  • Bathymetry for Brazilian reservoirs https://link.ana.gov.br/snirhbatimetria
  • Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
  • Large Scale Ocean model to create boundary conditions. Hycom: https://www.hycom.org/
  • Global tide model for boundary conditions: https://www.tpxo.net/global
  • Meteorological datasets for boundary conditions: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets
  • Monitoring data from Doce River
•  Software:
  • Delft3D – Modelo 3D hidrodinâmico e de transporte e qualidade de agua (rotinas para simulações em paralelo)
  • MatLab (programa computacional, existem licenças acadêmicas). Tutoriais! e Mini-Curso! ou Octave (alternativa grátis parecido com MatLab)
  • Notepad++ (editor de texto profissional, pode editar colunas)
  • OpenFOAM – The Open Source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Toolbox (Programa para Mecânica dos Fluidos Computacional) (Curso com informacoes adicionais)
  • CAELinux – Distribuição de Linux com pre- e pos-processadores e solver para CFD / Linux distribution including pre- and post-processors and solvers for CFD
• Additional material:
  • Steven K. Ayres, Tese “A Simulation of the Mississippi River Salt Wedge Estuary Using a Three-Dimensional Cartesian Z Coordinate Model“
  • Emissários submarinos e fluviais, Marine and Fluvial Outfalls (notas da apresentação).
  • Filme “Stratified Flow” de R. Long
  • Materiais multimídias da mecânica dos fluidos e hidráulica