Author(s): R. Morales; R. Ettema
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Numerical simulation; Water flow; Bridge abutment; Optimization; Mesh; Depth-averaged model
Abstract: Numerical experiments aimed at estimating optimal mesh size are performed using a twodimensional depth-averaged flow model. Despite the recent popularity of such 2-D numerical models, a comprehensive parametric assessment intended to determine the optimal mesh size has not been reported heretofore. The study presented herein entails an evaluation of several variables such as water depth, velocity magnitude, shear velocity, kinematic eddy viscosity, nodal spacing and, discretization error. The evaluation focuses especially on flow around bridge abutments. A global objective function accounting not only for the accuracy of the solution (represented by the average discretization error), but also for the computer running time (characterized by the number of iterations), is shown to provide an unbiased basis for selecting the optimal mesh size.
Year: 2011