Two-Dimensional Dam-Break Flood Simulation on Unstructured Meshes

A two-dimensional dam-break flood simulation model using unstructured meshes has been developed to study the hydrodynamics of flooding processes. The model employs the finite volume method to solve the conservation form of the shallow water equations. The HLLC approximate Riemann solver is used for computing the fluxes at cell interfaces because of its easiness to implement and suitability to wet/dry treatment. A second-order spatial accuracy is achieved by implementing MUSCL reconstruction technique. The model utilizes two-step TVD Runge-Kutta method for time stepping to achieve second-order accuracy in time. In addition to the model formulation, this paper presents the model verifications and validations against analytical solutions and benchmark problem for an oblique hydraulic jump test cast and 2D partial dam-break problem, respectively. The results show that the model can correctly account for the two-dimensional dam-break floods with respect to its effectiveness and robustness thus has bright application prospects.