Tidal Propagation in Chesterfield Inlet, N.W.T.

• Main Author: Budgell, William Paul
• Other Authors: James, W., Civil Engineering
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1976
• Subjects: Chesterfield Inlet; Hudson Bay; tidal; water levels; Hudson; Great Slave Lake; Long Inlet; Baker Lake; permafrost
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/17521

Chesterfield Inlet drains an area of 290,000 km^2, between Great Slave Lake and northern Hudson Bay, of predominantly continuous permafrost terrain. The 220-kilometre-long inlet may be used as an important navigation link to Baker Lake and potential pipeline sites. The inlet forms a complex network and is characterized by strong tidal forcing. A one-dimensional numerical model, using a weighted, implicit, finite difference scheme, was modified for application to the network. Sparse matrix techniques were incorporated into the model to speed Gaussian Elimination in the solution of the equations. Tidal constituents, derived from admittance calculations, were used to predict water levels at eight tide gauge locations. Tidal predictions at Sandpiper Island were used as the downstream boundary condition for the numerical model, while tidal predictions at the other gauge locations were used in the model calibration. The observed and model-computed water levels are in good agreement over the lower half of the inlet. Appreciable differences between the observed and computed values were encountered in the upper reaches. Although some of these discrepancies are attributable to errors in the upstream boundary condition and schematization of the model, there is evidence to suggest that time and range errors may exist in some of the recorded tidal data. The variation in the phase and amplitude of the tide throughout the inlet is determined through an examination of the tidal constituents and the model results. Power spectra of the observed and model-predicted water levels reveal that nonlinear interactions of the major tidal constituents take place in the upper portion of the inlet. Thesis Master of Engineering (MEngr)