FUNDAMENTAL EQUATIONS,

CONCEPTS AND IMPLEMENTATION

OF NUMERICAL SIMULATION IN FREE
SURFACE FLOW

Governing Equations of Fluid Flow

Navier-Stokes Equations
A system of 4 nonlinear PDE of mixed hyperbolic
parabolic
type
describing
the
fluid
hydrodynamics in 3D.
Three equations of conservation of momentum
in cartesian coordinate system plus equation of
continuity
embodying
the
principal
of
conservation of mass.
Expression of F=ma for a fluid in a differential
volume.
2

u
u
u
u
ax
u
v w
t
x
y
z
v
v
v
v
ay u v w
t
x
y
z
w
w
w
w
ax
u
v
w
t
x
y
z
ui
ui
ai
uj
t
x j

1
2
3

 The acceleration vector contains local

acceleration and covective terms
The force vector is broken into a
surface force and a body force per
unit volume.
The body force vector is due only to
gravity while the pressure forces and
the viscous shear stresses make up
the surface forces.
4

p xx yx zx

( 4)
y
z
x x
1 p xy yy zy
fy gy

(5)
y x
y
z
1 p xz yz zz
fz gz

(6)
z x
y
z
1
fx gx

The stresses are related to fluid element

displacements by invoking the Stokes viscosity
law for an incompressible fluid.

xx
xy

u
v
w
2 , yy 2 , zz 2
x
x
x
u v
yx

y x

w u
xz zx

x z

yz

v w

zy

z y

7
8
9
10
6

Substituting eqs. 7-10 into eqs. 4-6, we get

2u 2u 2u
1 p
fx gx
2 2 2
x
y
z
x
2v 2v 2v
1 p
fy gy
2 2 2
y
y
z
x

(11)
(12)

2w 2w 2w
1 p
fz gz

2 2 (13)
2
z
y
z
x
2 ui
1 p
fi gi

Einstein notation
xi
x j x j
7

The three N-S momentum equations can

be written in compact form as
ui
ui 1 p
2 ui
uj

g i (A1 )
t
x j
xi
x j x j

The equation of continuity for an incompressible

fluid

u v w

0
x y z
ui
0
(A 2)
xi

Turbulence
The free surface flows occurring in nature is almost
always turbulent. Turbulence is characterized by
random fluctuating motion of the fluid masses in
three dimensions. A few characteristic of the
turbulence are:
1.

Irregularity

Turbulent flow is irregular, random and chaotic. The

flow consists of a spectrum of different scales (eddy
sizes) where largest eddies are of the order of the
flow geometry (i.e. flow depth, jet width, etc). At the

other end of the spectra we have the smallest

eddies which are by viscous forces (stresses)
dissipated into internal energy.
2. Diffusuvity The turbulence increases the
exchange of momentum in flow thereby
increasing the resistance (wall friction) in internal
flows such as in channels and pipes.
3. Large Reynolds Number Turbulent flow occurs
at high Reynolds number. For example, the
transition to turbulent flow in pipes occurs at
NR~2300 and in boundary layers at NR~100000
10

4.Three-dimensional Turbulent flow is always threedimensional. However, when the equations are
time averaged we can treat the flow as twodimensional.
5. Dissipation Turbulent flow is dissipative, which
means that kinetic energy in the small (dissipative)
eddies are transformed into internal energy. The
small eddies receive the kinetic energy from
slightly larger eddies. The slightly larger eddies
receive their energy from even larger eddies and
so on. The largest eddies extract their energy from
the mean flow. This process of transferred energy
from the largest turbulent scales (eddies) to the
smallest is called cascade process.
11

Turbulence
. The random , chaotic nature of turbulence is
treated by dividing the instantaneous
values of velocity components and
pressure into a mean value and a
fluctuating value, i.e.

u u u
v v v
w w w
p p p

Why decompose variables ?

Firstly, we are usually interested in the mean values
rather than the time histories. Secondly, when we want
to solve the Navier-Stokes equation numerically it would
require a very fine grid to resolve all turbulent scales
and it would also require a fine resolution in time since
turbulent flow is always unsteady.
12

Reynolds Time-averaged Navier-Stokes

Equations
These are obtained from the N-S equations and
include the flow turbulence effect as well.
u
u
u
u
1 p
u
u
v
w
gx
u u
t
x
y
z
x x
x

u

u
u v u w
y
y z
z
Momentum equation in x direction
13

RNS Equations
u i
u i
1 p vij 1 Rij
uj

gi
t
x j
xi x j x j
u i
0
x
where vij

u i u j

x
xi
j

viscous stress tensor

Rij uiu j Reynold stress tensor

14

Reynold Stresses
The continuity equation remains unchanged except
that instantaneous velocity components are
replaced by the time-averaged ones. The three
momentum equations on the LHS are changed only
to the extent that the inertial and convective
acceleration terms are now expressed in terms of
time averaged velocity components. The most
significant change is that on the LHS we now have
the Reynold stresses. These are time-averaged
products of fluctuating velocity components and are
responsible for considerable momentum exchange
in turbulent flow.
15

Closure Problem
3 velocity components, one pressure and
6 Reynold stress terms = 10 unknowns
No. of equations=4
As No. of unknowns >No. of equations,
the problem is indeterminate. One need to
close the problem to obtain a solution.
The turbulence modeling tries to represent
the Reynold stresses in terms of the timeaveraged velocity components.
16

Turbulence Models
Boussinesq Model
An algebraic equation is used to compute a
turbulent viscosity, often called eddy viscosity.
The Reynolds stress tensor is expressed in
terms of the time-averaged velocity gradients
and the turbulent viscosity.

U j

uiu j t

xi

x
j

17

k- Turbulence Model
Two transport equations are solved which describe
the transport of the turbulent kinetic energy, k and
its dissipation, . The eddy viscosity is calculated as

k
t c 2

the Reynold stress tensor is calculated via

the Boussinesq approximation
18

RNS Equations and River Flow

Simulation
RNS equations are seldom used for the
river flow simulation. Reasons being
High Cost
Long Calculation time
Flow structure
Method of choice for flows in rivers,
streams and overland flow is 2D and 1D
Saint Venant equations or Shallow water
equations
19

2D Saint Venant Equation

Obtained from RNS equations by depthaveraging.
Suitable for flow over a dyke, through the
breach, over the floodplain.
Assumptions: hydrostatic pressure
distribution, small channel slope,

20

2D Saint Venant Equations

h (hu ) (hv)

0 continuity eq.
t
x
y
zb
(hu ) (hu 2 ) (huv)
h

gh
gh
t
x
y
x
x
gn 2u

u 2 v2
1

x momentum eq

h 3
2
zb
(hv) (huv) (hv )
h

gh
gh
t
x
y
y
y

gn v
2

u v
2

y momentum eq

21

1D Saint Venant Equation

Q A

0
t t
U
U
h
U
g
g (S0 S f )
t
x
x
The friction slope Sf is usually
obtained from a uniform flow formula
such as Manning or chezy.
22

Simplified Equations of Saint

Venant
1 u
u u

g t
g x
dynamic dyn. quasi

So S f
x
diffusive kinematic

wave

wave

steady wave

wave

23

Relative Weight of Each Term

in SV Equation
Order of magnitude of
each term In SV equation
for a flood on river Rhone

1
g
u
g

u
5
O(10 )
t
u
O(10 5 )
x

So

O(10 3 )

Sf

O(10 3 )

24

Calculation Grid
Breaking up of the flow domain into small
cells is central to CFD. Grid or mesh refers
to the totality of such cells.
In Open channel flow simulation the
vertices of a cell define a unique point
(x,y,,z)
* The governing equations are discretized
into algebraic equations and solved over
the volume of a cell.
25

Classification of Grids

Shape
Orthogonality
Structure
Blocks
Position of variables
Grid movements
26

Boundary Conditions
Inflow b. c
If Fr<1, specify discharge or velocity.
If Fr>1, specify discharge or velocity and
depth
Outflow b.c
Zero depth gradient or Newmann b.c
Specify depth
Specify Fr=1
27

Initial Condition
Values of flow depth, velocity, pressure etc
must be assigned at the start of the
calculation run.
Hot start

28

Wall Boundary Condition

No slip condition
require very fine
meshing adjacent to
the wall requiring lot
of CPU time. Flow
close to the wall is not
resolved but wall laws
derived from the
universal velocity
distribution are used.

u 1 30 y
ln

u
ks
wall law for rough boundaries

29

Methods of Solution
Finite Difference
Method
Finite element method
Finite volume method

Strategies
Implicit
Explicit
CFL condition

dx
dt
(U c)

30