Author(s): P. Brufau; P. Garcianavarro
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Free surface flow; Upwind schemes; Dam break waves; Wetting-drying fronts
Abstract: In 1959 the Malpasset arc dam 12Km upstream Frejus on the French Riviera broke almost instantaneously releasing an amount of about 48 million m3 of water [Vogel 1998]. The flood wave caused severe damages: 433 people lost their lives. Extensive investigations analyzing the catastrophe were undertaken. The police collected detailed observations of the flood wave propagation and its maximum elevations. In 1964 a 1/400 physical model was constructed at EDF-LNH (Chatou) in order to get a better understanding of the flooding process [Goutal 1999]. Nowadays, computational methods are able to simulate this flood wave. Calculations show that the wave arrival times and water elevations can be predicted with sufficient accuracy. Numerical results are obtained with a 2D explicit finite volume upwind technique. A new wetting-drying condition for unsteady flows is presented in this work.
Year: 2003