Finite difference

About: Finite difference is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 19693 publications have been published within this topic receiving 408603 citations.

Identification of parameters in unsteady open channel flows

Abstract: This paper introduces the influence coefficient algorithm, a simple, easily implemented, and rapidly convergent computational procedure for the solution of the parameter identification problem in unsteady open channel flow from field observations on stage hydrograph and velocity distribution at one or more points along the channel. (Identification is a mathematical process whereby the parameters embedded in a differential equation defining a system are determined from observations of system input and output.) The parameters specifically chosen for identification are the two ‘friction slope’ characteristics: the channel roughness coefficient and the exponent of the hydraulic radius in the empirical friction slope relation, a number usually assumed to be 4/3. These parameters are not physically measurable and have to be determined from the solutions of the mathematical model using concurrent input and output measurements. This new procedure is related to both quasilinearization and gradient methods. Additionally, an effective formulation of the algorithm is shown to depend on certain stability and convergence features related to the finite difference solutions of the governing flow equations but often ignored or glossed over.

A numerical study of the SPH method for simulating transient viscoelastic free surface flows

Abstract: The smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is extended and tested for the numerical simulation of transient viscoelastic free surface flows. The basic equations governing the free surface flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid are considered and approximated by SPH. In particular, a drop of an Oldroyd-B fluid impacting a rigid plate is simulated. Results for a Newtonian fluid are also presented for comparison. It is found that the original SPH method, which has been successfully applied to the simulation of transient viscoelastic flows in bounded domains (such as the start-up flow between parallel plates), is unable to simulate the viscoelastic free surface flow considered here because of the so-called tensile instability. This instability leads to unrealistic fracture and particle clustering in fluid stretching and may eventually result in complete blowup of the simulation. Recent works have shown that in simulations of elastic solids the tensile instability can be removed by an artificial stress. Here we show that the same idea also works for viscoelastic fluids provided that the constant parameter entering in the definition of the artificial stress is properly chosen. Numerical results obtained are in good agreement with those simulated by a finite difference technique.

Finite-difference tvd scheme for computation of dam-break problems

Abstract: A second-order hybrid type of total variation diminishing (TVD) finite-difference scheme is investigated for solving dam-break problems. The scheme is based upon the first-order upwind scheme and the second-order Lax-Wendroff scheme, together with the one-parameter limiter or two-parameter limiter. A comparative study of the scheme with different limiters applied to the Saint Venant equations for 1D dam-break waves in wet bed and dry bed cases shows some differences in numerical performance. An optimum-selected limiter is obtained. The present scheme is extended to the 2D shallow water equations by using an operator-splitting technique, which is validated by comparing the present results with the published results, and good agreement is achieved in the case of a partial dam-break simulation. Predictions of complex dam-break bores, including the reflection and interactions for 1D problems and the diffraction with a rectangular cylinder barrier for a 2D problem, are further implemented. The effects of bed s...