Simulation of dam-break flow with grid adaptation

The unsteady free surface flow caused by sudden collapse of a dam produces discontinuities in the flow variables. As the flow surges downstream, it forms a moving bore front with steep gradients of water height and velocity. In the numerical simulation of this flow, proper grid distribution can play a crucial part in the prediction and resolution of the solutions. The use of presently available numerical schemes to solve this problem on a uniform course grid system fails to resolve the characteristic how features and hence do a poor job in simulating this flow. In this paper, an adaptive grid which adjusts itself as the solution evolves is used for a better resolution of the flow properties. Rai and Anderson's(12) method is used to determine the grid speed; however, a different partial differential equation based on the conservative principle of grid are lengths for clustering grids in one-dimensional flow is used along with the St. Venant equations to numerically simulate the how. Both the subcritical and the supercritical hows under extreme boundary conditions are solved using this technique. With a specified number of grid points, this provides better quality solutions as compared to those obtained with uniformly distributed grids. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.