NUMERICAL SOLUTION OF RIVER FLOOD AND DAM

BREAK PROBLEMS BY CELL CENTRED FINITE VOLUME

SCHEME
Dantje K. Natakusumah1*, M. Syahril Badri Kusuma1, Dhemi Harlan1,
M.Rizky Ramadhan1, and Bobby Minola Ginting2
Civil Engineering Department, Institute of Technology Bandung

Civil Engineering Department, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung

*Email: dkn@si.itb.ac.id

Abstract
This paper presents the development of a numerical solution for simulating flood
phenomena caused by dam break problem. This dam break phenomena should
be examined because of the potential damages and on the greater dam can cause
casualties. This numerical solution presented in this paper is developed using cellcentered finite volume scheme first introduced by Jameson (1981) for solving the
two dimensional compressible Euler equations (1981). This numerical solution has
been implemented for several cases of dam break and the flow on a channel and
the results has been compared with the results obtained by other researchers. The
conclusion from this comparison is the simulation results shows good agreement.
This numerical solution is then applied in a hypothetical case at the Lawe-Lawe
Dam and being a part of mitigation effort just in case the disaster phenomenas
happen.
Keywords: Finite Volume Method (FVM), Jameson Scheme, Unstructured Grid,
St. Vennant Equation, nearly dry bed flow problem and Dam Break
Problems.
INTRODUCTION
Background
One form of the utilization of water resources is the construction of dams in order
to use water as an energy source for power generator, irrigation and water supply
during dry season. The dam construction has been carefully planned in advance but
the physical changes around the dam either naturally or due to human intervention
will gradually affect the condition of the dam itself. The most dangerous impacts
caused by changes condition of the dam is a dam failure or dam break, which could
cause flooding and even in large dam can cause the loss of life. Dam break was
caused by overtopping due to the capacity of the dam no longer accommodate the
increased discharge into dams, collapse, earthquakes and liquefaction or landslides
on the dam. To reduce the impact of dam break problems a concept of numerical
methods as a tool for dam break mitigation was developed.
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Research Method
This numerical solution presented in this paper is developed using cell-centered
finite volume scheme first introduced by Jameson et al. (1981) for solving the two
dimensional compressible Euler equation. Their cell centered finite volume scheme
has been implemented by Natakusumah (1992) for solving two-dimensional
compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes Equations on Structured, Unstructured
and Hybrid Grids. Both compressible Euler and Navier-Stokes equation are
commonly used for modeling many aerodynamics problems. The approach was
later implemented by Nuradil (2004) for modelling hydraulic problem of shallow
water problems described by St. Vennant Equations (all involving wet bed cases).
In this paper, earlier attempts made by Nuradil (2004) for modeling shallow water
problems of wet bed cases has been further improved to include nearly dry wet bed
cases. In this case, the space discretization is performed using the cell-centered
finite volume approach while the time discretization is calculated by using the three
stages Runge-Kutta method. To prevent numerical oscillations due to the absent of
the diffusion terms, the artificial dissipation method introduced by Jameson was
implemented.
Governing Equation
The governing equation that used in numerical model is the two-dimensional inviscid
St. Vennant equations. This equation can be derived by neglecting viscous terms
and integrating hydrodynamic equations over the depth. The inviscid St.Vennant
equations can be written as:
W F G
+
+
= S ....................................................................................... (1)
t x y

Where
............ (2)
and
............................................................................... (3)
Numerical Method
In cell-centered finite volume method, Equation (1) can be integral to a control
volume () and obtained

W d + H d = S d .................................................................... (4)
t

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By applying the Gauss divergence theory, Equation (4) converted to surface integral
that can be written as:

W d + H n d = S d .................................................................... (5)
t

Where n is a normal vector of surface and it value is:

............................................................................................. (6)
So that equation (6) can be written as:
................................................................... (7)
Space Discretization
FVM space discretization process begins by dividing a large domain into smaller
sub domains. Figure 1 shows a domain is divided into a small cell volume 1,
2 and 3. In practice, the space discretization mostly performed using triangular
or square shape cell or a combination of the two (hybrid grids).

Figure 1 : Division of domain into a number of sub-domain or cell.

By referring to Figure 1, Equation (7) can be written as:
............................................................ (8)
Second part on right hand of Equation (8) is convective term which obtained by
count the flux that passing domain or can be written as:
......................................................... (9)
Variable W on Equation (9) is placed at the center of the cell volume and assumed
to represent the average value of W on the cell volume i,j and is defined as:

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...................................................................................... (10)
Where Ai,j is an extensive cell volume i,j and calculated by the trapezoidal rule
formula:
Ai , j

1 D
(xk +1 + xk )( y k +1 + y k ) ............................................................... (11)
2 k=A

The Convective terms on Equation (9) was approximated by the trapezoidal rule
formula as
............................................................. (12)
Form Equation (10), flux is calculated depends on the number of elements surrounding
domain . By assuming cell volume Ai,j to be constant and by ssubstituting Equation
(11) and (13) into equation (11) so we can obtain discretization space for FVM as
follows:
Ai , j

D
A

Wi , j + (Fk y k Gk x k ) = Ai , j S i , j ............................................ (13)

t
k=A
B

Calculation of the convective on FVM highly dependent on the flux that passes
through the cell volume or expressed by:
N
p

C (Wk ) = (Fi y i Gi xi ) ....................................................................... (14)

i =1

Where Np is a number of edges that form the cell volume k and C(Wk) is a convective
operator which is discrete approached equilibrium flux through all sides of the
cell volume k. By following the work of Nuradil (2004) and Natakusumah et al.
(2004), a velocity flux Qi for the flux that passing through the cell volume side-I is
introduced as:
Qi = u i y i vi xi

.................................................................................... (15)

The convective operator for cell volume k can be written as follows:

................................................................... (16)

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So that equation (16) can be written as:

Ak

(Wk ) + C (Wk ) = Ak S k ......................................................................... (17)

Or in expanded the above equation can be written as

..................... (18)

Equation (16) and (17) does not have natural viscous term that can reduce oscillations
naturally when hydraulic jump occurs. The addition of artificial numerical dissipation
performed to reduce oscillations that arise and find solutions that are not defective.
The addition of numerical dissipation can be written as follows:

Ak

(Wk ) + C (Wk ) D(Wk ) = Ak S k .......................................................... (19)

t

where C(Wk) is convective operator, while D(Wk) is an artificial numerical

dissipation operator. The concept of artificial numerical dissipation developed by
Jameson for the Euler equations has been successfully implemented by Nuradil
(2004) and Natakusumah et.al (2004) for shallow water problems governed by St.
Vennant equations.
Following these earlier works, artificial numerical dissipation operator in Equation
(18) consists of the combined of second order and fourth order dissipation terms
defined as follows:
D(Wk ) = D 2 (Wk ) D 4 (Wk ) ........................................................................ (20)

Where operator D2(Wk) and D4(Wk) are Laplacian and Biharmonik dissipation
operator.
................................................................. (21)

The Biharmonic operator was added so that the calculation is smoother but turned
off in the vicinity of hydraulic jump and the Laplacian operator turned on to reduce

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oscillations. Substitution is performed by using a hydraulic jump sensor and

expressed by:
................................................................................. (22)

................................................................................. (23)
Time Discretization
The time step calculation uses the explicit three-stage Runge-Kutta method. The
idea of this method is to calculate the value of Wkn on the right hand of Equation
(24) in the interval nt and (n+1)t to obtain the value of Wkn+1 . In this research is
used the three stage Runge-Kutta methods in three stages as follows:
Wk(0 ) = Wkn
Wk(1) = Wk(0 ) 1

t k
C Wk(0 ) D Wk(0 )
Ak

Wk(2 ) = Wk(0 ) 2

t k
C Wk(1) D Wk(0 ) ................................................... (24)
Ak

Wk(3 ) = Wk(0 ) 3

t k
C Wk(2 ) D Wk(0 )
Ak

[(

[(

[(

)]

)]

)]

Wkn +1 = Wk(3 )

With coefficients 1, 2 and 3 as follows:

1 = 0.6

2 = 0.6

3 = 1.0

Initial and Boundary Condition

The initial condition used is cold start with prescribed water depth at various points.
There are two kinds of boundary conditions, wall boundary conditions and flow
boundary conditions. In wall boundary condition, there is no flow that penetrates
the surface of the wall. This condition expressed by normal velocity flux flow across
the surface of the wall is equal to zero. Inflow and outflow boundary conditions are
determined by using the characteristics method.

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Wet and Dry Treatment

The technique used in this paper to solve the problem of nearly dry bed is the
porosity function approach proposed by Casulli (2008) which stated as follows:
p ( x, y , z ) =

1 h ( x, y ) + z > 0
(x, y ) ..................................................... (25)
0
otherwise

Where the integral evaluation horizontally every cell volume on z = in expressed

as follows:

p( i ) = p(x, y, x ) d ................................................................................ (26)

Equation (23) show as p() = 0 the cells is in the dry state otherwise as p() = P1 the
cells volume is in the wet state. Thus, the total depth H(x, y, z) at each cell volume
expressed as:
............................................ (27)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results presented in the following paragraphs were taken from master thesis
and earlier papers written by Bobby Minola Ginting (use Quadrilateral mesh
only) and master thesis of Mochamad Rizky Ramadhan (use both Quadrilateral
and Triangular mesh). They work using completely different computer code but
both are based on the same Jameson Scheme.
Case 1: Flow over a Triangular Obstacle (Small Scale) Case
Ramadhan (2013) has successfully implemented his finite volume code to simulate
the experimental set up for testing the dam break flow over a bump proposed by
Hiver (2000) which involving dry bed. This aim to improve the results obtained
earlier by Ginting (2011) and there are some improvement although they are not
always in a perfect agreement with experiment. In this simulation, the domain is set
as rectangular channel with 5.60 m length and 0.50 m width and discritized using
quadrilateral mesh (1120 cells and 1243 points). The reservoir is filled by 0.111 m
water depth, meanwhile the water depth at the channel before the triangular bed is
set as zero. After the triangular bed, the channel contains 0.025 m water depth and
downstream part is closed by wall. In other words, the domain is a closed system
with a wall at upstream and downstream. The symmetrical bump is 0.065 m high
and has bed slopes of 0.14.

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Figure 2 : Numerical simulation results of flow depth along the channel at (a) t =
1.8 s, (b) t = 3 s, (c) t = 8.4 s and (e) t = 15.5 s.
From the simulation results, after the opening of the gate, water flows suddenly
with high velocity on dry channel, and while reaches the upstream bump, the wave
is reflected back in upstream direction. After 1.8 s, the wave propagation is formed
on an upward dry slope, and after it reaches the top of bump, the water starts to
flow downward on dry slope, until reaching the wet bed on the downstream. At
3.0 s 3.7 s, the water reaches the downstream wall, and there is a reflected wave
in upstream direction. At 8.4 s, the water depth on upstream and downstream of
bump is relatively the same, but the water from the top of bump starts to flow
downward, and it clearly depicted by the results at 15.5 s. From this result, there is
a little difference between numerical and experimental results on downstream at 3.0
s and 3.7 s. It can be caused by the complexity in determining the wall boundary
conditions.
Case 2: Reservoir and L-Shaped Channel Case
Ramadhan (2013) used quadrilateral mesh (906 cells and 1021 points) to improve
the results obtained by Ginting (2011) in modeling model experimental test proposed
by CADAM team which aimed at verifying the capability of numerical schemes
to simulate the dam break flow problem. There some improvement in the results
although they are not always in a perfect agreement with experiment. The bed of
reservoir is 0.33 m lower than the channel bed. The reservoir and the channel are

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separated by a gate, which is opened suddenly to produce dam break flow. The initial
water depth in the reservoir is 0.53 m, and 0.0 m. This laboratory result has been
compared before by Soarez (1998) and Tahershamsi (2010), etc. In this research,
Manning coefficient is used 0.0095. The results shown there is a little difference in
the results from the lab experiments but obtained the same pattern in this case. The
biggest difference was found in G2 point where the difference of 0.05 m between
the simulation results and lab experiments was observed. At another point there is a
little difference but still have the similar pattern.

Figure 3 Mesh used in the numerical simulation and comparison results of flow
depth along the channel at points G1, G and G4.
Case 3: Circular Dam Break Problem
In order to test the capability of the presented scheme, we consider a circular dambreak test case involving a water cylinder dam with the radius at the center of
a square computational domain of 40 m by 40 m. The computational domain is
divided into 2085 points connected to form 4008 triangular elements. The initial
water depth inside the cylinder dam is 2.5 m, and the water level outside the dam is
0.5 m. At time t = 0 s, the cylindrical wall dam in middle collapses instantaneously
and then a circular wave propagates in all radial direction.
In this case the numerical simulations will be compared with the results of
numerical simulations using much better finite volume scheme based on Weighted
Average Flux (WAF) approach used by Loukili and Soulaimani (2007). Based on

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the graph shown in Figure 4, at t = 0.4 s shock wave propagates outward dam and
rarefaction wave propagates inward and reach the middle of the dam. At t = 0.7 s
rarefaction wave reflection causes the water level falls in the middle dam. At t =
1.4 s rarefaction wave reflections resulting water level is lower than the elevation
around the dam and also began forming a second shock wave. After that, at t = 3.5
s, the second shock wave propagates out of each dam and at t = 4.7 s shock wave
reflection occurs in the middle and continue to propagate out of the dam.
Please note that the differences between the two results lie in the speed of change
in water level and the shock wave propagation. Differences in changes of water can
be observed from at t = 0.4 s which shows that the results of Jameson Scheme was
lower than that of Superbee scheme simulations. Although there are differences,
both shows similar pattern. This show that the numerical model used in this study is
good enough to simulate the process of formation of a complex wave.

Figure 4. Mesh used for the simulation and comparison of present numerical results
with that of WAF Superbee Scheme at t=0 s, t=0.4 s, t=0.7 s, t=3.5 s and t=4.7 s.
Case 4: Application on Lawe-Lawe Dam Break Problem
Ramadhan (2013) made an attempt to simulate hypothetical case of Lawe-Lawe
dam break problem as part mitigation effort. After Situ Gitung disaster, dam break
simulation is now become important part of dam construction plan especially when
there is a settlements downstream of the location of the dam. In performing this
application topographic data is availability. Lawe-Lawe dam will be built with high
+14 m so the simulation domain used is the contour elevation at 13 m height and
assume that sections of the dam that collapse along the 30 m. The computational
domain is divided into 1656 points connected to form 1550 quadrilateral elements.

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Simulation results show that the flow reaches the end of the domain in 9 minutes
with a depth of 2-3 m. After 9 minutes the flow started filling the area in front of the
dam and the water in the dam began receding. This case also shows the influence of
the bathymetry is huge especially on the flow pattern in front of the dam. In the real
situation will be much more complicated than numerical simulation.

Figure 5 : Mesh used for the simulation and simulation results of flow depth
around the dam channel at (a) t = 60 s, (e) t = 300 s, and (j) t = 600 s.
Case 5: Application on the Non-Uniformly Building Layout
Ginting (2011) has successfully implemented his finite volume code to simulate
the dam-break phenomenon on the non-uniformly building layout. The results have
been compared with the laboratory measurement results obtained by Setiawati
(2011). The simulated cases are the configuration without building, 1 building, 3
buildings and 5 buildings.

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Configuration without Building

a)

In this section the comparison between numerical model and laboratory results is
presented. The computational mesh is taken as rectangular grid. The initial condition
is set as 30 cm at reservoir. The time step is set as 0.01 s. The value of Dmin is set
as 0.001 mm. The average Manning coefficient is set as 0.010 since the material of
channel bed is steel. Measurement points are taken at reservoir (-2 m), 1E5 (+0.45
m), 3E5 (+2.45 m), 5E5 (+4.45 m), 7E5 (+6.45 m) and 8E5 (+7.45 m).

Figure 6 : Time Evolution of Water Level for Configuration without Building

Figure 6-a show the emptying curve of reservoir and the numerical model agrees
with the experimental results, it is clearly shown that there is no significant difference
between them. Figure 6-b show that numerical model gives the bigger value than
experimental results, especially for time 1 5 s but for time 10 40 s, the numerical
model gives the good results. Figure 6-c - Figure 6-f show the numerical model
gives the slightly difference results with the laboratory model especially for 1 5
s. After 10 s, the numerical model shows good agreement results with laboratory
model that indicated by no-significant differences.
b)

Configuration with 3 Buildings

The initial condition is same with previous case, except the 3 buildings are taken
at the channel on 2.55 m in front of the gate. Numerical model shows that after 2
s, water crash the buildings and the water depth at the upstream of them becomes
about 25 cm, while 3 cm approximately at downstream of the building 1 (3F7) and
building 3 (3F3) and about 4 cm at downstream of building 2 (3F5). On grid 3F4
and 3F6, the water depth is approximately 16 cm. In this case, the backwater effect

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due to building is more significant. It is clearly shown from Figure 8 that during
3 - 5 s, the backwater affects the flow further towards upstream of the channel.
Also, the artificial viscosity shows the good performance in handling the numerical
instabilities and shock wave phenomenon.

Figure 7 : Time Evolution of Water Level for Configuration with 3 Building

c)

Configuration with 5 Buildings

The 5 buildings are taken on the channel with the non-uniformly layout, while the
initial condition is set same with the previous case. Numerical models shows that
after 2 s, water crash the first 3 buildings and the water depth at the upstream of
them becomes about 25 cm and this result does not differ much with the previous
case (configuration with 3 buildings). The significant difference is shown from the
water depth at the downstream of 3 first buildings.

Figure 8 : Time Evolution of Water Level for Configuration with 5 Buildings

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

The simulation results described earlier shows that Finite volume method with
three Runge-Kutta method for time dicretization and artificial numerical dissipation
give the good results in solving the dam break problem with nearly dry bed. Due to
explicit nature of the computation, this method is much affected by time stepping
regarding its stability computation and finishing time. There is no strict rule in
determining the value of Dmin regarding wet and dry treatment. The oscillation
still appears especially for the case with high shock wave therefore the other kind
of numerical dissipation may be adopted. The grids should be built smaller to give
the better result, but it may need more computational time and greater computer
memory.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful to LPPM-ITB for funding the research on The application
of finite volume method for mitigation of disaster due to flood and dam break
problems, provided by the Institute of Technology Bandung, through the ITB
Innovation Research Program 2012.
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