A river water quality model for time varying BOD discharge concentration

• Main Authors: Seth F. Oppenheimer, Donald Dean Adrian, Akram Alshawabkeh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 1999-01-01
• Series: Mathematical Problems in Engineering
• Subjects: River model; Environmental modeling; Weak solutions; Quasi-steady-state; Convection–diffusion equations.
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/S1024123X99001064
• ISSN: 1024-123X; 1563-5147

We consider a model for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in a semi-infinite river where the BOD is prescribed by a time varying function at the left endpoint. That is, we study the problem with a time varying boundary loading. We obtain the well-posedness for the model when the boundary loading is smooth in time. We also obtain various qualitative results such as ordering, positivity, and boundedness. Of greatest interest, we show that a periodic loading function admits a unique asymptotically attracting periodic solution. For non-smooth loading functions, we obtain weak solutions. Finally, for certain special cases, we show how to obtain explicit solutions in the form of infinite series.