Shallow flow modelling using curvilinear depth-averaged stream function and vorticity transport equations

Most receiving water, such as lakes and open reservoirs, have large plan dimensions with respect to their depth. In such cases, the flow may be nearly two-dimensional and the depth-averaged Reynolds equations are appropriate. This paper presents a new version of the governing equations in curvilinear depth-averaged stream function and vorticity transport (ψ, ω) form appropriate for non-orthogonal computational meshes. The equations are discretized using finite differences and solved using successive over-relaxation for the depth-averaged stream function equation and an alternating direction implicit scheme for the vorticity transport equation. Results from the numerical model are validated against data from flow past a backward facing step and jet-forced flow in a circular reservoir. The results indicate that the (ψ, ω) form of the shallow water equations may be useful for applications where the free surface can either be assumed horizontal, or is know a priori.     

Finite volume solution to integrated shallow surface–saturated groundwater flow

This paper describes development of an integrated shallow surface and saturated groundwater model (GSHAW5). The surface flow motion is described by the 2‐D shallow water equations and groundwater movement is described by the 2‐D groundwater equations. The numerical solution of these equations is based on the finite volume method where the surface water fluxes are estimated using the Roe shock‐capturing scheme, and the groundwater fluxes are computed by application of Darcy's law. Use of a shock‐capturing scheme ensures ability to simulate steady and unsteady, continuous and discontinuous, subcritical and supercritical surface water flow conditions. Ground and surface water interaction is achieved by the introduction of source‐sink terms into the continuity equations. Two solutions are tightly coupled in a single code. The numerical solutions and coupling algorithms are explained. The model has been applied to 1‐D and 2‐D test scenarios. The results have shown that the model can produce very accurate results and can be used for simulation of situations involving interaction between shallow surface and saturated groundwater flows. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computation of two-dimensional dam-break flood flows

Sudden total collapse of a dam holding back a reservoir of water, whenever it occurs, becomes formidably impressive in the extent of destruction with which it is associated. The movement on a dry bed of a two-dimensional flood wave resulting from the break of a dam has been one of the most important and challenging subjects in rapidly varied unsteady flows from the computational point of view. An implicit time-marching finite volume numerical scheme was developed and subsequently applied for the solution of the two-dimensional unsteady open channel flow equations written in conservation form. In order to avoid the problems associated with a conventional grid system, a body-fitted non-orthogonal local co-ordinate system was utilized. The proposed numerical technique was applied to determine the stage hydrographs, water surface profiles and velocities of flood flows resulting from suddenly breached storage dams. Predictions were compared with an analytical solution, with available numerical solutions using MacCormack's two-step explicit scheme and with experimental measurements. Agreement between predictions and measurements regarding the wave front advancement and stage hydrographs is considered to be satisfactory.     

The effect of using non-orthogonal boundary-fitted grids for solving the shallow water equations

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of using non-orthogonal boundary-fitted grids for the numerical solution of the shallow water equations. Two geometries with well known analytical solutions are introduced in order to investigate the accuracy of the numerical solutions. The results verify that a reasonable departure from orthogonality can be allowed when the rate of change of cell areas is kept sufficiently small (i.e. it is not necessary to create a strictly orthogonal grid when the grid is sufficiently smooth).     

Horizontal mixing layer in shallow water flows

Horizontal-shear thin-layer homogeneous fluid flow in the open channel is considered. A one-dimensional mathematical model of the development and evolution of the horizontal mixing layer is derived within the framework of the three-layer scheme. The steady-state solutions of the equations of motion are constructed and investigated. In particular, supercritical (subcritical)-in-average flow concepts are introduced and the problem of the mixing layer structure is solved. The proposed model is verified on the basis of comparison with a numerical solution of two-dimensional equations of shallow water theory.     

Semi-implicit finite difference methods for three-dimensional shallow water flow

A semi-implicit finite difference method for the numerical solution of three-dimensional shallow water flows is presented and discussed. The governing equations are the primitive three-dimensional turbulent mean flow equations where the pressure distribution in the vertical has been assumed to be hydrostatic. In the method of solution a minimal degree of implicitness has been adopted in such a fashion that the resulting algorithm is stable and gives a maximal computational efficiency at a minimal computational cost. At each time step the numerical method requires the solution of one large linear system which can be formally decomposed into a set of small three-diagonal systems coupled with one five-diagonal system. All these linear systems are symmetric and positive definite. Thus the existence and uniquencess of the numerical solution are assured. When only one vertical layer is specified, this method reduces as a special case to a semi-implicit scheme for solving the corresponding two-dimensional shallow water equations. The resulting two- and three-dimensional algorithm has been shown to be fast, accurate and mass-conservative and can also be applied to simulate flooding and drying of tidal mud-flats in conjunction with three-dimensional flows. Furthermore, the resulting algorithm is fully vectorizable for an efficient implementation on modern vector computers.     

The numerical study of roll‐waves in inclined open channels and solitary wave run‐up

In this paper, we introduce a finite‐volume kinetic BGK scheme and its applications to the study of roll and solitary waves. The current scheme is based on the numerical solution of the gas‐kinetic Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook model in the flux evaluation across each cell interface. An intrinsic connection between the BGK model and time‐dependent, non‐linear, non‐homogeneous shallow‐water equations enables us to solve shallow‐water equations automatically with our kinetic scheme. The analytical solution, experimental measurements, and numerical calculations for problems associated with roll‐waves down an inclined open channel and solitary waves incident on a sloped beach are also presented. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite volume solver for 1D shallow‐water equations applied to an actual river

This paper describes the numerical solution of the 1D shallow‐water equations by a finite volume scheme based on the Roe solver. In the first part, the 1D shallow‐water equations are presented. These equations model the free‐surface flows in a river. This set of equations is widely used for applications: dam‐break waves, reservoir emptying, flooding, etc. The main feature of these equations is the presence of a non‐conservative term in the momentum equation in the case of an actual river. In order to apply schemes well adapted to conservative equations, this term is split in two terms: a conservative one which is kept on the left‐hand side of the equation of momentum and the non‐conservative part is introduced as a source term on the right‐hand side. In the second section, we describe the scheme based on a Roe Solver for the homogeneous problem. Next, the numerical treatment of the source term which is the essential point of the numerical modelisation is described. The source term is split in two components: one is upwinded and the other is treated according to a centred discretization. By using this method for the discretization of the source term, one gets the right behaviour for steady flow. Finally, in the last part, the problem of validation is tackled. Most of the numerical tests have been defined for a working group about dam‐break wave simulation. A real dam‐break wave simulation will be shown. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated numerical model for vegetated surface and saturated subsurface flow interaction

The construction of an integrated numerical model is presented in this paper to deal with the interactions between vegetated surface and saturated subsurface flows. A numerical model is built by integrating the previously developed quasi-three-dimensional (Q3D) vegetated surface flow model with a two-dimensional (2D) saturated groundwater flow model. The vegetated surface flow model is constructed by coupling the explicit finite volume solution of 2D shallow water equations (SWEs) with the implicit finite difference solution of Navier-Stokes equations (NSEs) for vertical velocity distribution. The subsurface model is based on the explicit finite volume solution of 2D saturated groundwater flow equations (SGFEs). The ground and vegetated surface water interaction is achieved by introducing source-sink terms into the continuity equations. Two solutions are tightly coupled in a single code. The integrated model is applied to four test cases, and the results are satisfactory.     

A numerical method for 3D viscous incompressible flows using non-orthogonal grids

This paper presents a numerical method for fluid flow in complex three-dimensional geometries using a body-fitted co-ordinate system. A new second-order-accurate scheme for the cross-derivative terms is proposed to describe the non-orthogonal components, allowing parts of these terms to be treated implicitly without increasing the number of computational molecules. The physical tangential velocity components resulting from the velocity expansion in the unit tangent vector basis are used as dependent variables in the momentum equations. A coupled equation solver is used in place of the complicated pressure correction equation associated with grid non-orthogonality. The co-ordinate-invariant conservation equations and the physical geometric quantities of control cells are used directly to formulate the numerical scheme, without reference to the co-ordinate derivatives of transformation. Several two- and three-dimensional laminar flows are computed and compared with other numerical, experimental and analytical results to validate the solution method. Good agreement is obtained in all cases.     

A coupled lattice Boltzmann model for the shallow water‐contamination system

A coupled numerical method for the direct simulation of shallow water dynamics and pollutant transport is formulated and implemented. The conservation equations of shallow water dynamics equations and the convection–diffusion equations are solved using the lattice Boltzmann (LB) method. The local equilibrium distribution of the pollutant has no terms of second order in flow velocity. And the relaxation time of the pollutant deviates from a constant for the flows with variable free surface water depth. The numerical tests show that this scheme strictly obeys the conservation law of mass and momentum. Excellent agreement is obtained between numerical predictions and analytical solutions in the pure diffusion problem and convection–diffusion problem. Furthermore, the influences on the accuracy of the lattice size and the diffusivity are also studied. The results indicate that the variation in the free surface water depth cannot affect the conservation of the model, and the model has the ability to simulate the complex topography problem. The comparison shows that the LB scheme has the capacity to solve the complex convection–diffusion problem in shallow water. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of thermal stratification in a curved duct with 3D body-fitted co-ordinates

This paper concerns a numerical prediction method for buoyancy-influenced flows using three-dimensional non-orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinates. The numerical analysis of the transformed governing equations for thermal hydraulics is based on a Lagrangian method, in which advected physical values are evaluated by local cubic spline interpolations with third-order accuracy in the three-dimensional computational domain. In addition, the buoyancy and diffusion terms are discretized in the Lagrangian scheme so as to have second-order accuracy with respect to time and space. The Neumann boundary conditions, which have been rather difficult for non-orthogonal co-ordinates to deal with, can be implemented by making use of normal vectors on the physical boundary surfaces and cubic spline interpolations. The developed numerical method is applied to the steady isothermal flow in a curved pipe and the unsteady stratified flow in a curved duct. Both of the predicted values are in good agreement with the experimental results and the validity of the prediction method is confirmed.     

Development of a lattice Boltzmann method for two‐layered shallow‐water flow

In this paper the dynamics of a two‐layered liquid, made of two immiscible shallow‐layers of different density, has been investigated within the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). The LBM developed in this paper for the two‐layered, shallow‐water flow has been obtained considering two separate sets of LBM equations, one for each layer. The coupling terms between the two sets have been defined as external forces, acted on one layer by the other. Results obtained from the LBM developed in this paper are compared with numerical results obtained solving the two‐layered, shallow‐water equations, with experimental and other numerical results published in literature. The results are interesting. First, the numerical results obtained by the LBM and by the shallow‐water model can be considered as equivalent. Second, the LBM developed in this paper is able to simulate motion conditions on nonflat topography. Third, the agreement between the LBM (and also shallow‐water model) numerical results and the experimental results is good when the evolution of the flow does not depend on the viscosity, that is, during the initial phase of the flow, dominated by gravity and inertia forces. When the viscous forces dominate the evolution of the flow the agreement between numerical and experimental results depends strongly on the viscosity; it is good if the numerical LBM viscosity has the same order of magnitude of the liquid's kinematic viscosity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一维孔隙率浅水方程及其数值离散

通过孔隙率方法来描述挡水物对过水能力的影响建立了一维孔隙率浅水方程. 采用有限体积方法和Roe格式的近似Riemann解建立了孔隙率浅水方程的离散模式. 对底坡和孔隙率源项采用特性方向分解的方法进行处理,使模型精确满足C(Conservative)特性,增加了模型的稳定性. 通过算例模拟证明了模型可以对河道中的挡水物作用进行模拟,且计算结果表明模型具有和谐、稳定、分辨率高等优点.      

Numerical study of breaking waves by a two‐phase flow model

A two‐phase flow model, which solves the flow in the air and water simultaneously, is presented for modelling breaking waves in deep and shallow water, including wave pre‐breaking, overturning and post‐breaking processes. The model is based on the Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the k ?ε turbulence model. The governing equations are solved by the finite volume method in a Cartesian staggered grid and the partial cell treatment is implemented to deal with complex geometries. The SIMPLE algorithm is utilised for the pressure‐velocity coupling and the air‐water interface is modelled by the interface capturing method via a high resolution volume of fluid scheme. The numerical model is validated by simulating overturning waves on a sloping beach and over a reef, and deep‐water breaking waves in a periodic domain, in which good agreement between numerical results and available experimental measurements for the water surface profiles during wave overturning is obtained. The overturning jet, air entrainment and splash‐up during wave breaking have been captured by the two‐phase flow model, which demonstrates the capability of the model to simulate free surface flow and wave breaking problems.Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A finite volume shock‐capturing solver of the fully coupled shallow water‐sediment equations

This paper describes a numerical solver of well‐balanced, 2D depth‐averaged shallow water‐sediment equations. The equations permit variable horizontal fluid density and are designed to model water‐sediment flow over a mobile bed. A Godunov‐type, Harten–Lax–van Leer contact (HLLC) finite volume scheme is used to solve the fully coupled system of hyperbolic conservation laws that describe flow hydrodynamics, suspended sediment transport, bedload transport and bed morphological change. Dependent variables are specially selected to handle the presence of the variable density property in the mathematical formulation. The model is verified against analytical and semi‐analytical solutions for bedload transport and suspended sediment transport, respectively. The well‐balanced property of the equations is verified for a variable‐density dam break flow over discontinuous bathymetry. Simulations of an idealised dam‐break flow over an erodible bed are in excellent agreement with previously published results, validating the ability of the model to capture the complex interaction between rapidly varying flow and an erodible bed and validating the eigenstructure of the system of variable‐density governing equations. Flow hydrodynamics and final bed topography of a laboratory‐based 2D partial dam breach over a mobile bed are satisfactorily reproduced by the numerical model. Comparison of the final bed topographies, computed for two distinct sediment transport methods, highlights the sensitivity of shallow water‐sediment models to the choice of closure relationships. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extension of a high‐resolution scheme to 1D liquid–gas flow

This paper presents the extension of a high‐resolution conservative scheme to the one‐dimensional one‐pressure six‐equation two‐fluid flow model. Only mixtures of water and air have been considered in this study, both fluids have been characterized using simple equations of state, namely stiffened gas for the liquid phase and perfect gas for the gas phase. The resulting scheme is explicit and first‐order accurate in space and time. A second‐order version of the scheme has also been derived using the MUSCL strategy and slope limiters. Some numerical results show the good capabilities of this type of schemes in the solution of discontinuities in two‐fluid flow problems, all of them are based on water/air numerical benchmarks widely used in the two‐phase flow literature. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two‐dimensional dam break flow simulation

Numerical modelling of shallow water flow in two dimensions is presented in this work with the results obtained in dam break tests. Free surface flow in channels can be described mathematically by the shallow‐water system of equations. These equations have been discretized using an approach based on unstructured Delaunay triangles and applied to the simulation of two‐dimensional dam break flows. A cell centred finite volume method based on Roe's approximate Riemann solver across the edges of the cells is presented and the results are compared for first‐ and second‐order accuracy. Special treatment of the friction term has been adopted and will be described. The scheme is capable of handling complex flow domains as shown in the simulation corresponding to the test cases proposed, i.e. that of a dam break wave propagating into a 45° bend channel (UCL) and in a channel with a constriction (LNEC‐IST). Comparisons of experimental and numerical results are shown. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shallow flow simulation on dynamically adaptive cut cell quadtree grids

A computationally efficient, high‐resolution numerical model of shallow flow hydrodynamics is described, based on dynamically adaptive quadtree grids. The numerical model solves the two‐dimensional non‐linear shallow water equations by means of an explicit second‐order MUSCL‐Hancock Godunov‐type finite volume scheme. Interface fluxes are evaluated using an HLLC approximate Riemann solver. Cartesian cut cells are used to improve the fit to curved boundaries. A ghost‐cell immersed boundary method is used to update flow information in the smallest cut cells and overcome the time step restriction that would otherwise apply. The numerical model is validated through simulations of reflection of a surge wave at a wall, a low Froude number potential flow past a circular cylinder, and the shock‐like interaction between a bore and a circular cylinder. The computational efficiency is shown to be greatly improved compared with solutions on a uniform structured grid implemented with cut cells. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.