An improved particle shifting technique for incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics methods

The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is one of the powerful Lagrangian tools for modeling free surface flows. However, it suffers from particle disorder, which leads to interpolation and numerical errors. To overcome this problem, several techniques have been introduced until now, among which the particle shifting technique (PST) based on Fick's law is an efficient one. The current form of this method needs tuning parameters to fulfill numerical stability criteria. In this study, to eliminate calibration factors, a new shifting coefficient is derived theoretically based on particle positions before and after shifting, regardless of other parameters such as velocity, pressure, time step intervals, etc. The only required input is particle positions, and the main concern is conserving particle densities in their updated positions. In addition to the proposed PST, a new distribution index (DI) is introduced for measuring the spatial uniformity of particles. Furthering the research, some novel treatments are also studied to improve particle movements near free surface boundary. The proposed idea is only assessed for ISPH method in this study, and its performance in other SPH schemes needs more investigations. Following this innovative method, it is validated by modeling different cases including dam break flow, paddle movement, and elliptical water drop. In all cases, particle arrangements have been improved by means of the modified shifting method. In that sense, good agreements between simulation results with experimental data, analytical solutions, and other numerical methods approve the ability of the developed method in simulating free surface flows.     

A consistent and fast weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics with a new wall boundary condition

A modified weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (WCSPH) is presented, which utilizes consistent discretization schemes for spatial derivatives in the flow equations. Here, each SPH particle is considered as a computational point that represents a specific part of the fluid. To overcome non‐physical oscillations that usually arise in standard WCSPH, we modified the mass conservation equation by using a numerical filter. This modification is based on the difference between two discretization schemes used for the term . Furthermore, a new implementation of wall boundary condition in SPH is introduced. This condition is imposed on the pressure of wall boundary particles to ensure that the acceleration of each boundary particle in normal direction to the wall is zero. Thus, no penetration through walls will occur. To examine the performance of the modified method, we solved a series of two‐dimensional incompressible internal flow benchmark problems. By comparing the result with analytical solutions and the results of the standard WCSPH, we show that the use of consistent schemes in conjunction with the proposed numerical filter improves both accuracy and speed of the numerical method. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of finite volume solutions to the shallow water equations with shock‐capturing schemes

Numerical methods have become well established as tools for solving problems in hydraulic engineering. In recent years the finite volume method (FVM) with shock capturing capabilities has come to the fore because of its suitability for modelling a variety of types of flow; subcritical and supercritical; steady and unsteady; continuous and discontinuous and its ability to handle complex topography easily. This paper is an assessment and comparison of the performance of finite volume solutions to the shallow water equations with the Riemann solvers; the Osher, HLL, HLLC, flux difference splitting (Roe) and flux vector splitting. In this paper implementation of the FVM including the Riemann solvers, slope limiters and methods used for achieving second order accuracy are described explicitly step by step. The performance of the numerical methods has been investigated by applying them to a number of examples from the literature, providing both comparison of the schemes with each other and with published results. The assessment of each method is based on five criteria; ease of implementation, accuracy, applicability, numerical stability and simulation time. Finally, results, discussion, conclusions and recommendations for further work are presented. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A stabilized SPH method for inviscid shallow water flows

In this paper, the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is applied to the solution of shallow water equations. A brief review of the method in its standard form is first described then a variational formulation using SPH interpolation is discussed. A new technique based on the Riemann solver is introduced to improve the stability of the method. This technique leads to better results. The treatment of solid boundary conditions is discussed but remains an open problem for general geometries. The dam‐break problem with a flat bed is used as a benchmark test. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A remedy for numerical oscillations in weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Weakly Compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (WCSPH) can lead to non‐physical oscillations in the pressure and density fields when simulating incompressible flow problems. This in turn may result in tensile instability and sometimes divergence. In this paper, it is shown that this difficulty originates from the specific form of spatial discretization used for the pressure term when solving the mass conservation equation. After describing the pressure–velocity decoupling problem associated with the so‐called colocated grid methods, a modified approach is presented that overcomes this problem using a different discretization scheme for the second derivative of pressure. The modified scheme is employed for solving a number of benchmark problems including both single‐phase and two‐phase test cases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simplified adaptive Cartesian grid system for solving the 2D shallow water equations

This paper presents a new simplified grid system that provides local refinement and dynamic adaptation for solving the 2D shallow water equations (SWEs). Local refinement is realized by simply specifying different subdivision levels to the cells on a background uniform coarse grid that covers the computational domain. On such a non‐uniform grid, the structured property of a regular Cartesian mesh is maintained and neighbor information is determined by simple algebraic relationships, i.e. data structure becomes unnecessary. Dynamic grid adaptation is achieved by changing the subdivision level of a background cell. Therefore, grid generation and adaptation is greatly simplified and straightforward to implement. The new adaptive grid‐based SWE solver is tested by applying it to simulate three idealized test cases and promising results are obtained. The new grid system offers a simplified alternative to the existing approaches for providing adaptive mesh refinement in computational fluid dynamics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A correction for balancing discontinuous bed slopes in two‐dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics shallow water modeling

In this paper, a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) numerical model for the shallow water equations (SWEs) with bed slope source term balancing is presented. The solution of the SWEs using SPH is attractive being a conservative, mesh‐free, automatically adaptive method without special treatment for wet‐dry interfaces. Recently, the capability of the SPH–SWEs numerical scheme with shock capturing and general boundary conditions has been used for predicting practical flooding problems. The balance between the bed slope source term and fluxes in shallow water models is desirable for reliable simulations of flooding over bathymetries where discontinuities are present and has received some attention in the framework of Finite Volume Eulerian models. The imbalance because of the source term resulting from the calculation of the the water depth is eradicated by means of a corrected mass, which is able to remove the error introduced by a bottom discontinuity. Two different discretizations of the momentum equation are presented herein: the first one is based on the variational formulation of the SWEs in order to obtain a fully conservative formulation, whereas the second one is obtained using a non‐conservative form of the free‐surface elevation gradient. In both formulations, a variable smoothing length is considered. Results are presented demonstrating the corrections preserve still water in the vicinity of either 1D or 2D bed discontinuities and provide close agreement with 1D analytical solutions for rapidly varying flows over step changes in the bed. The method is finally applied to 2D dam break flow over a square obstacle where the balanced formulation improves the agreement with experimental measurements of the free surface. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of soil–water interaction using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method

An application of smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to simulation of soil–water interaction is presented. In this calculation, water is modeled as a viscous fluid with week compressibility and soil is modeled as an elastic–perfectly plastic material. The Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion is applied to describe the stress states of soil in the plastic flow regime. Dry soil is modeled by one-phase flow while saturated soil is modeled by separate water and soil phases. Interaction between soil and water is taken into account by means of pore water pressure and seepage force. Simulation tests of soil excavation by a water jet are calculated as a challenging example to verify the broad applicability of the SPH method. The excavations are carried out in two different soil models, one is dry soil and the other is fully saturated soil. Numerical results obtained in this paper have shown that the gross discontinuities of soil failure can be simulated without any difficulties. This supports the feasibility and attractiveness of this a new approach in geomechanics applications. Advantages of the method are robustness, conceptual simplicity and relative ease of incorporating new physics.     

Sensitivity of the 1D shallow water equations with source terms: Solution method for discontinuous flows

A finite volume‐based numerical technique is presented concerning the sensitivity of the solution of the one‐dimensional Shallow Water Equations with scalar transport. An approximate Riemann solver is proposed for direct sensitivity calculation even in the presence of discontinuous solutions. The Shallow Water Sensitivity Equations are first derived as well as the expressions of the sensitivity source terms, initial and boundary conditions. The numerical technique is then detailed and application examples are provided to assess the method's efficiency in estimating the sensitivity to different parameters (friction coefficient and initial and boundary conditions). The application of the dam‐break problem to a trapezoidal channel is also provided. The comparison with the analytical solution and the classical empirical approach illustrates the usefulness of the direct sensitivity calculation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An upstream flux‐splitting finite‐volume scheme for 2D shallow water equations

An upstream flux‐splitting finite‐volume (UFF) scheme is proposed for the solutions of the 2D shallow water equations. In the framework of the finite‐volume method, the artificially upstream flux vector splitting method is employed to establish the numerical flux function for the local Riemann problem. Based on this algorithm, an UFF scheme without Jacobian matrix operation is developed. The proposed scheme satisfying entropy condition is extended to be second‐order‐accurate using the MUSCL approach. The proposed UFF scheme and its second‐order extension are verified through the simulations of four shallow water problems, including the 1D idealized dam breaking, the oblique hydraulic jump, the circular dam breaking, and the dam‐break experiment with 45° bend channel. Meanwhile, the numerical performance of the UFF scheme is compared with those of three well‐known upwind schemes, namely the Osher, Roe, and HLL schemes. It is demonstrated that the proposed scheme performs remarkably well for shallow water flows. The simulated results also show that the UFF scheme has superior overall numerical performances among the schemes tested. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive Q‐tree Godunov‐type scheme for shallow water equations

This paper presents details of a second‐order accurate, Godunov‐type numerical model of the two‐dimensional shallow water equations (SWEs) written in matrix form and discretized using finite volumes. Roe's flux function is used for the convection terms and a non‐linear limiter is applied to prevent unwanted spurious oscillations. A new mathematical formulation is presented, which inherently balances flux gradient and source terms. It is, therefore, suitable for cases where the bathymetry is non‐uniform, unlike other formulations given in the literature based on Roe's approximate Riemann solver. The model is based on hierarchical quadtree (Q‐tree) grids, which adapt to inherent flow parameters, such as magnitude of the free surface gradient and depth‐averaged vorticity. Validation tests include wind‐induced circulation in a dish‐shaped basin, two‐dimensional frictionless rectangular and circular dam‐breaks, an oblique hydraulic jump, and jet‐forced flow in a circular reservoir. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A second-order radiation boundary condition for the shallow water wave equations on two-dimensional unstructured finite element grids

A second-order radiation boundary condition (RBC) is derived for 2D shallow water problems posed in ‘wave equation’ form and is implemented within the Galerkin finite element framework. The RBC is derived by matching the dispersion relation for the interior wave equation with an approximate solution to the exterior problem for outgoing waves. The matching is correct to second order, accounting for curvature of the wave front and the geometry. Implementation is achieved by using the RBC as an evolution equation for the normal gradient on the boundary, coupled through the natural boundary integral of the Galerkin interior problem. The formulation is easily implemented on non-straight, unstructured meshes of simple elements. Test cases show fidelity to solutions obtained on extended meshes and improvement relative to simpler first-order RBCs.     

Flux difference splitting for the Euler equations in one spatial co-ordinate with area variation

An approximate (linearized) Riemann solver is presented for the solution of the Euler equations of gas dynamics in one spatial co-ordinate. This includes cylindrically and spherically symmetric geometries and also applies to narrow ducts with area variation. The method is Roe's flux difference splitting with a technique for dealing with source terms. The results of two problems, a spherically divergent infinite shock and a converging cylindrical shock, are presented. The numerical results compare favourably with those of Noh's recent survey and also with those of Ben-Artzi and Falcovitz using a more complicated Riemann solver.     

A mesh patching method for finite volume modelling of shallow water flow

A new mesh‐patching model is presented for shallow water flow described by the 2D non‐linear shallow water (NLSW) equations. The mesh‐patching model is based on AMAZON, a high‐resolution NLSW engine with an improved HLLC approximate Riemann solver. A new patching algorithm has been developed, which not only provides improved spatial resolution of flow features in particular parts of the mesh, but also simplifies and speeds up the (structured) grid generation process for an area with complicated geometry. The new patching technique is also compatible with increasingly popular parallel computing and adaptive grid techniques. The patching algorithm has been tested with moving bores, and results of test problems are presented and compared to previous work. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discontinuous boundary implementation for the shallow water equations

Quasi‐bubble finite element approximations to the shallow water equations are investigated focusing on implementations of the surface elevation boundary condition. We first demonstrate by numerical results that the conventional implementation of the boundary condition degrades the accuracy of the velocity solution. It is also shown that the degraded velocity leads to a critical instability if the advection term is present in the momentum equation. Then we propose an alternative implementation for the boundary condition. We refer to this alternative implementation as a discontinuous boundary (DB) implementation because it introduces at each boundary node two independent mass–flux values that result in a discontinuity at the boundary. Numerical results show that the proposed DB implementation is consistent, stabilizes the quasi‐bubble scheme, and leads to second‐order accuracy at the surface elevation specified boundary. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Semi‐Lagrangian semi‐implicit time‐splitting scheme for the shallow water equations

Time‐splitting technique applied in the context of the semi‐Lagrangian semi‐implicit method allows the use of extended time steps mainly based on physical considerations and reduces the number of numerical operations at each time step such that it is approximately proportional to the number of the points of spatial grid. To control time growth of the additional truncation errors, the standard stabilizing correction method is modified with no penalty for accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm. A linear analysis shows that constructed scheme is stable for time steps up to 2h. Numerical integrations with actual atmospheric fields of pressure and wind confirm computational efficiency, extended stability and accuracy of the proposed scheme. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element method for shallow water equation including open boundary condition

A method to deal with an open boundary condition in the analysis of water surface waves, the tide, etc. by means of the finite element method is proposed in this paper. The present method has two important features relating to the treatment of the open boundary condition. The first feature is to consider the non-reflective virtual boundary condition which has been developed in the numerical wave analysis method. The incident wave conditions without spurious reflected waves can be imposed at the open boundary. The second feature is to identify the amplitude of the components of incident waves in terms of observed water elevations in the field of standing waves. This can be done as a parameter identification based on an optimization problem by applying the conjugate gradient method. The applicability of this method to wave propagation problems is verified by several numerical computations.     

Simple efficient algorithm (SEA) for shallow flows with shock wave on dry and irregular beds

An explicit Godunov‐type solution algorithm called SEA (simple efficient algorithm) has been introduced for the shallow water equations. The algorithm is based on finite volume conservative discretisation method. It can deal with wet/dry and irregular beds. Second‐order accuracy, in both time and space, is achieved using prediction and correction steps. A very simple and efficient flux limiting technique is used to equip the algorithm with total variation dimensioning property for shock capturing purposes. In order to make sure about the balance between the flux gradient and the bed slope, treatment of the source term has been done using a new procedure inspired mainly by the physical rather than mathematical consideration. SEA has been applied to one‐dimensional problems, although it can equally be applied to multi‐dimensional problems. In order to assess the capability of proposed algorithm in dealing with practical applications, several test cases have been examined. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Practical evaluation of five partly discontinuous finite element pairs for the non‐conservative shallow water equations

This paper provides a comparison of five finite element pairs for the shallow water equations. We consider continuous, discontinuous and partially discontinuous finite element formulations that are supposed to provide second‐order spatial accuracy. All of them rely on the same weak formulation, using Riemann solver to evaluate interface integrals. We define several asymptotic limit cases of the shallow water equations within their space of parameters. The idea is to develop a comparison of these numerical schemes in several relevant regimes of the subcritical shallow water flow. Finally, a new pair, using non‐conforming linear elements for both velocities and elevation (P?P), is presented, giving optimal rates of convergence in all test cases. P?P₁ and P?P₁ mixed formulations lack convergence for inviscid flows. P?P₂ pair is more expensive but provides accurate results for all benchmarks. P?P provides an efficient option, except for inviscid Coriolis‐dominated flows, where a small lack of convergence is observed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flux and source term discretization in two‐dimensional shallow water models with porosity on unstructured grids

Two‐dimensional shallow water models with porosity appear as an interesting path for the large‐scale modelling of floodplains with urbanized areas. The porosity accounts for the reduction in storage and in the exchange sections due to the presence of buildings and other structures in the floodplain. The introduction of a porosity into the two‐dimensional shallow water equations leads to modified expressions for the fluxes and source terms. An extra source term appears in the momentum equation. This paper presents a discretization of the modified fluxes using a modified HLL Riemann solver on unstructured grids. The source term arising from the gradients in the topography and in the porosity is treated in an upwind fashion so as to enhance the stability of the solution. The Riemann solver is tested against new analytical solutions with variable porosity. A new formulation is proposed for the macroscopic head loss in urban areas. An application example is presented, where the large scale model with porosity is compared to a refined flow model containing obstacles that represent a schematic urban area. The quality of the results illustrates the potential usefulness of porosity‐based shallow water models for large scale floodplain simulations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.