A mode split,Godunov‐type model for nonhydrostatic,free surface flow

A previously developed model for nonhydrostatic, free surface flow is redesigned to improve computational efficiency without sacrificing accuracy. Both models solve the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations in a fractional step manner with the pressure split into hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic components. The hydrostatic equations are first solved with an approximate Riemann solver. The hydrostatic solution is then corrected by including the nonhydrostatic pressure and requiring the velocity field to obey the incompressibility constraint. The original model requires the solution of a Riemann problem at every cell face for each vertical layer of cells, which is computationally expensive. The redesigned model instead solves the shallow water (long wave) equations for the hydrostatic solution. Vertical shear is computed by subtracting the shallow water equations from the full three dimensional equations, which removes the hydrostatic thrust terms. Therefore, the required fluxes may be more efficiently computed with velocity based upwind differencing rather than solving a Riemann problem in each vertical layer of cells. This approach is termed mode splitting and has been used in hydrostatic coastal and ocean circulation models, but not surf zone models. Numerical predictions are compared with analytical solutions and experimental data to show that the mode split model is as accurate as the original model, but requires significantly less computational effort especially for large numbers of cell layers. Published 2014. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.