Abstract
This technical note studies the supercritical junction flow occurring at the right-angled confluence of four equal-width channels in which two upstream channels carry flow towards the junction. The note seeks to investigate, firstly, the pertinence of a 2D shallow water equation model to reproduce the typical flow structures at the junction. The second objective is to build a computationally efficient model with more resolution applied at critical point i.e. junction and less in areas where the flow is primarily 1D i.e. channels and compare such model, named, ‘sparse’ with a uniformly meshed model regarding solution accuracy and computational efficiency. The results indicate that the sparse model is able to reproduce typical flow structures appearing at the channel junction in an adequate manner. The discharge distribution is fairly well predicted. The jump angles are almost the same in the two models as well as the location and size of the recirculation zones and the flow depth super-elevation areas. However, the two models diverge in the prediction of very small depths in the recirculation zone where the sparse model overestimates the depths. As regards, computational efficiency, the sparse model is found to be 61% more efficient than the uniform mesh model.
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Haider, S., Gabriel, H.F. & Khan, S.A. Supercritical flow simulation at a right channel junction. Comparison between a uniform and a sparse mesh. KSCE J Civ Eng 21, 2984–2990 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-0811-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-0811-7