Two-dimensional numerical modelling of shallow water flows over multilayer movable beds

The two-dimensional modelling of shallow water flows over multi-sediment erodible beds is presented. A novel approach is developed for the treatment of multiple sediment types in morphodynamics. The governing equations include the two-dimensional shallow water equations for hydrodynamics, an Exner-type equation for morphodynamics, a two-dimensional transport equation for the suspended sediments, and a set of empirical equations for entrainment and deposition. Multilayer sedimentary beds are formed of different erodible soils with sediment properties and new exchange conditions between the bed layers are developed for the model. The coupled equations yield a hyperbolic system of balance laws with source terms. As a numerical solver for the system, we implement a fast finite volume characteristics method. The numerical fluxes are reconstructed using the method of characteristics which employs projection techniques. The proposed finite volume solver is simple to implement, satisfies the conservation property and can be used for two-dimensional sediment transport problems in non-homogeneous isotropic beds without need of complicated three-dimensional equations. To assess the performance of the proposed models, we present numerical results for a wide variety of shallow water flows over sedimentary layers. Comparisons to experimental data for dam-break problems over movable beds are also included in this study.     

A new composite scheme for two-layer shallow water flows with shocks

This paper is devoted to solve the system of partial differential equations governing the flow of two superposed immiscible layers of shallow water flows. The system contains source terms due to bottom topography, wind stresses, and nonconservative products describing momentum exchange between the layers. The presence of these terms in the flow model forms a nonconservative system which is only conditionally hyperbolic. In addition, two-layer shallow water flows are often accompanied with moving discontinuities and shocks. Developing stable numerical methods for this class of problems presents a challenge in the field of computational hydraulics. To overcome these difficulties, a new composite scheme is proposed. The scheme consists of a time-splitting operator where in the first step the homogeneous system of the governing equations is solved using an approximate Riemann solver. In the second step a finite volume method is used to update the solution. To remove the non-physical oscillations in the vicinity of shocks a nonlinear filter is applied. The method is well-balanced, non-oscillatory and it is suitable for both low and high values of the density ratio between the two layers. Several standard test examples for two-layer shallow water flows are used to verify high accuracy and good resolution properties for smooth and discontinuous solutions.     

Stability of supersonic contact discontinuity for two-dimensional steady compressible Euler flows in a finite nozzle

In this paper, we study the stability of supersonic contact discontinuity for the two-dimensional steady compressible Euler flows in a finitely long nozzle of varying cross-sections. We formulate the problem as an initial–boundary value problem with the contact discontinuity as a free boundary. To deal with the free boundary value problem, we employ the Lagrangian transformation to straighten the contact discontinuity and then the free boundary value problem becomes a fixed boundary value problem. We develop an iteration scheme and establish some novel estimates of solutions for the first order of hyperbolic equations on a cornered domain. Finally, by using the inverse Lagrangian transformation and under the assumption that the incoming flows and the nozzle walls are smooth perturbations of the background state, we prove that the original free boundary problem admits a unique weak solution which is a small perturbation of the background state and the solution consists of two smooth supersonic flows separated by a smooth contact discontinuity.     

Regularized shallow water equations and an efficient method for numerical simulation of shallow water flows

Regularized shallow water equations are derived as based on a regularization of the Navier-Stokes equations in the form of quasi-gasdynamic and quasi-hydrodynamic equations. Efficient finite-difference algorithms based on the regularized shallow water equations are proposed for the numerical simulation of shallow water flows. The capabilities of the model are examined by computing a test Riemann problem, the flow over an obstacle, and asymmetric dam break.     

Three‐layer flows in the shallow water limit

We formulate and discuss the shallow water limit dynamics of the layered flow with three layers of immiscible fluids of different densities bounded above and below by horizontal walls. We obtain a resulting system of four equations, which may be nonlocal in the non‐Boussinesq case. We provide a systematic way to pass to the Boussinesq limit, and then study those equations, which are first‐order PDEs of mixed type, more carefully. We show that in a symmetric case the solutions remain on an invariant surface and using simple waves we illustrate that this is not the case for nonsymmetric cases. Reduced models consisting of systems of two equations are also proposed and compared to the full system.     

Numerical modelling of free-surface shallow flows over irregular topography with complex geometry

A well-balanced Godunov-type finite volume algorithm is developed for modelling free-surface shallow flows over irregular topography with complex geometry. The algorithm is based on a new formulation of the classical shallow water equations in hyperbolic conservation form. Unstructured triangular grids are used to achieve the adaptability of the grid to the geometry of the problem and to facilitate localised refinement. The numerical fluxes are calculated using HLLC approximate Riemann solver, and the MUSCL-Hancock predictor–corrector scheme is adopted to achieve the second-order accuracy both in space and in time where the solutions are continuous, and to achieve high-resolution results where the solutions are discontinuous. The novelties of the algorithm include preserving well-balanced property without any additional correction terms and the wet/dry front treatments. The good performance of the algorithm is demonstrated by comparing numerical and theoretical results of several benchmark problems, including the preservation of still water over a two-dimensional hump, the idealised dam-break flow over a frictionless flat rectangular channel, the circular dam-break, and the shock wave from oblique wall. Besides, two laboratory dam-break cases are used for model validation. Furthermore, a practical application related to dam-break flood wave propagation over highly irregular topography with complex geometry is presented. The results show that the algorithm can correctly account for free-surface shallow flows with respect to its effectiveness and robustness thus has bright application prospects.     

Space–time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for shallow water flows

A space–time discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method is presented for the shallow water equations over varying bottom topography. The method results in nonlinear equations per element, which are solved locally by establishing the element communication with a numerical HLLC flux. To deal with spurious oscillations around discontinuities, we employ a dissipation operator only around discontinuities using Krivodonova's discontinuity detector. The numerical scheme is verified by comparing numerical and exact solutions, and validated against a laboratory experiment involving flow through a contraction. We conclude that the method is second order accurate in both space and time for linear polynomials.     

High order upwind scheme for modelling turbulent shallow water flow in hydraulic structures

An unstructured finite volume model for quasi-2D free surface flow with wet-dry fronts and turbulence modelling is presented. The convective flux is discretised with either a an hybrid second-order/first-order scheme, or a fully second order scheme, both of them upwind Godunov's schemes based on Roe's average. The hybrid scheme uses a second order discretisation for the two unit discharge components, whilst keeping a first order discretisation for the water depth [2]. In such a way the numerical diffusion is much reduced, without a significant reduction on the numerical stability of the scheme, obtaining in such a way accurate and stable results. It is important to keep the numerical diffusion to a minimum level without loss of numerical stability, specially when modelling turbulent flows, because the numerical diffusion may interfere with the real turbulent diffusion. In order to avoid spurious oscillations of the free surface when the bathymetry is irregular, an upwind discretisation of the bed slope source term [4] with second order corrections is used [2]. In this way a fully second order scheme which gives an exact balance between convective flux and bed slope in the hydrostatic case is obtained. The k – ε equations are solved with either an hybrid or a second order scheme. In all the numerical simulations the importance of using a second order upwind spatial discretisation has been checked [1]. A first order scheme may give rather good predictions for the water depth, but it introduces too much numerical diffusion and therefore, it excessively smooths the velocity profiles. This is specially important when comparing different turbulence models, since the numerical diffusion introduced by a first order upwind scheme may be of the same order of magnitude as the turbulent diffusion. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Well-balanced unstaggered central schemes for one and two-dimensional shallow water equation systems

We propose a new well-balanced unstaggered central finite volume scheme for hyperbolic balance laws with geometrical source terms. In particular we construct a new one and two-dimensional finite volume method for the numerical solution of shallow water equations on flat/variable bottom topographies. The proposed scheme evolves a non-oscillatory numerical solution on a single grid, avoids the time consuming process of solving Riemann problems arising at the cell interfaces, and is second-order accurate both in space and time. Furthermore, the numerical scheme follows a well-balanced discretization that first discretizes the geometrical source term according to the discretization of the flux terms, and then mimics the surface gradient method and discretizes the water height according to the discretization of the water level. The resulting scheme exactly satisfies the C-property at the discrete level. The proposed scheme is then applied and classical one and two-dimensional shallow water equation problems with flat or variable bottom topographies are successfully solved. The obtained numerical results are in good agreement with corresponding ones appearing in the recent literature, thus confirming the potential and efficiency of the proposed method.     

Regularized shallow water equations for numerical simulation of flows with a moving shoreline

A numerical algorithm for simulating free-surface flows based on regularized shallow water equations is adapted to flows involving moving dry-bed areas. Well-balanced versions of the algorithm are constructed. Test computations of flows with dry-bed areas in the cases of water runup onto a plane beach and a constant-slope beach are presented. An example of tsunami simulation is given.     

A vortex method for computing two-dimensional inviscid incompressible flows

A vortex method is suggested for computing two-dimensional inviscid incompressible flows in a closed domain with a possible flow through it. An algorithm for searching for stable steady vortex configurations is described. The method developed is used to study the dynamics of the Chaplygin-Lamb dipole in a rectangular channel in various flow regimes.     

A new model of Saint Venant and Savage–Hutter type for gravity driven shallow water flows

We introduce a new model for shallow water flows with non-flat bottom. A prototype is the Saint Venant equation for rivers and coastal areas, which is valid for small slopes. An improved model, due to Savage–Hutter, is valid for small slope variations. We introduce a new model which relaxes all restrictions on the topography. Moreover it satisfies the properties (i) to provide an energy dissipation inequality, (ii) to be an exact hydrostatic solution of Euler equations. The difficulty we overcome here is the normal dependence of the velocity field, that we are able to establish exactly. Applications we have in mind concern, in particular, computational aspects of flows of granular material (for example in debris avalanches) where such models are especially relevant. To cite this article: F. Bouchut et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003).     

Particle trajectories beneath small amplitude shallow water waves in constant vorticity flows

We investigate the particle trajectories in a constant vorticity shallow water flow over a flat bed as periodic waves propagate on the water’s free surface. Within the framework of small amplitude waves, we find the solutions of the nonlinear differential equations system which describes the particle motion in the considered case, and we describe the possible particle trajectories. Depending on the relation between the initial data and the constant vorticity, some particle trajectories are undulating curves to the right, or to the left, others are loops with forward drift, or with backward drift, others can follow some peculiar shapes.     

Stability of a Cartesian grid projection method for zero Froude number shallow water flows

In this paper a Godunov-type projection method for computing approximate solutions of the zero Froude number (incompressible) shallow water equations is presented. It is second-order accurate and locally conserves height (mass) and momentum. To enforce the underlying divergence constraint on the velocity field, the predicted numerical fluxes, computed with a standard second order method for hyperbolic conservation laws and applied to an auxiliary system, are corrected in two steps. First, a MAC-type projection adjusts the advective velocity divergence. In a second projection step, additional momentum flux corrections are computed to obtain new time level cell-centered velocities, which satisfy another discrete version of the divergence constraint. The scheme features an exact and stable second projection. It is obtained by a Petrov–Galerkin finite element ansatz with piecewise bilinear trial functions for the unknown height and piecewise constant test functions. The key innovation compared to existing finite volume projection methods is a correction of the in-cell slopes of the momentum by the second projection. The stability of the projection is proved using a generalized theory for mixed finite elements. In order to do so, the validity of three different inf-sup conditions has to be shown. The results of preliminary numerical test cases demonstrate the method’s applicability. On fixed grids the accuracy is improved by a factor four compared to a previous version of the scheme.     

Simulation of shallow water flows with shoaling areas and bottom discontinuities

A numerical method based on a second-order accurate Godunov-type scheme is described for solving the shallow water equations on unstructured triangular-quadrilateral meshes. The bottom surface is represented by a piecewise linear approximation with discontinuities, and a new approximate Riemann solver is used to treat the bottom jump. Flows with a dry sloping bottom are computed using a simplified method that admits negative depths and preserves the liquid mass and the equilibrium state. The accuracy and performance of the approach proposed for shallow water flow simulation are illustrated by computing one- and two-dimensional problems.     

A variational free-Lagrange method for shallow water

This article presents a variational free-Lagrange (VFL) method for rotating shallow water. This method was first derived by Augenbaum [2] who discretised Hamilton's action principle with a free-Lagrange data structure. The novel feature of our approach is to exploit the geometric structure preserved by the VFL method to the effect of conserving energy over long-time simulations. Numerical results demonstrate this property and motivate the extension of this approach to other variational formulations of climate models. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On isomorphism problem for von Neumann flows with one discontinuity

A von Neumann flow is a special flow over an irrational rotation of the circle and under a piecewise C¹ roof function with a non-zero sum of jumps. We prove that the absolute value of the jump is a (measure theoretic) invariant in the class of von Neumann special flows with one discontinuity, i.e., two ergodic von Neumann flows with one discontinuity are not isomorphic if the jumps of the roof functions have different absolute values, regardless of the irrational rotation in the base.     

A robust central scheme for the shallow water flows with an abrupt topography based on modified hydrostatic reconstructions

We study a second-order central scheme for the shallow water flows with a discontinuous bottom topography based on modified hydrostatic reconstructions (HRs). The first HR scheme was proposed in Audusse et al, which may be missing the effect of the large discontinuous bottom topography. We introduce a modified HR method to cope with this numerical difficulty. The new scheme is well-balanced for still water solutions and can guarantee the positivity of the water depth. Finally, several numerical results of classical problems of the shallow water equations confirmed these properties of the new scheme. Especially, the new scheme yields superior results for the shallow water downhill flow over a step.     

A jump discontinuity of compressible viscous flows grazing a non-convex corner

We show existence and regularity of solution for the compressible viscous steady state Navier–Stokes system on a polygon having a grazing corner and that the density has a jump discontinuity across a curve inside the domain. There are corresponding jumps in derivatives of the velocity. The solution comes from a well-posed boundary value problem on a polygonal domain with a non-convex corner. A formula for the decay of the jump is given. The decay formula suggests that density jumps can occur in a compressible flow with a non-vanishing viscosity.     

An adaptive grid technique for the vertical structure of shallow water models

The efficient resolution of the boundary layers occurring in geophysical flows has motivated the search for criteria to optimize the vertical nodal placement in three-dimensional (3D) shallow water models. This paper describes the implementation and testing of an adaptive grid technique for the internal mode of shallow water models. The technique uses an r-method in which the nodes are moved vertically based on the velocity gradients between consecutive nodes. One-dimensional (1D) tests show that the method behaves well in tidal- and wind-driven flows, both in well-mixed and stratified conditions. Average accuracy improvements of 50% were obtained relative to uniform grids, with a 15% CPU time increase. The adaptive technique accounts accurately for the space and time variability of the flow, thus being attractive for any type of problem. Furthermore, the technique does not require an a priori knowledge of the flow conditions, thus simplifying greatly the modeling procedure.