A new form of the Saint-Venant equations for variable topography

Yu, Cheng-Wei; Hodges, Ben R.; Liu, Frank

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4001-2020

Articles | Volume 24, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4001-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4001-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 8

Research article

|

18 Aug 2020

Research article |

| 18 Aug 2020

A new form of the Saint-Venant equations for variable topography

Cheng-Wei Yu, Ben R. Hodges, and Frank Liu

Data sets

Evaluation of the performance of the Reference Slope (RS) Method in Simulation Program for River Network (SPRNT) C.-W. Yu, B. R. Hodges, and F. Liu https://doi.org/10.18738/T8/GRCB8B

Test case data for Reference Slope study with HEC-RAS and SPRNT-RS C.-W. Yu, B. R. Hodges, and F. Liu https://doi.org/10.18738/T8/BXJBF5

frank-y-liu/SPRNT: minor bug fixes (Version v1.3.8) F. Liu and C.-W. Yu https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3978737

Short summary

This study investigates the effects of bottom slope discontinuity on the stability of numerical solutions for the Saint-Venant equations. A new reference slope concept is proposed to ensure smooth source terms and eliminate potential numerical oscillations. It is shown that a simple algebraic transformation of channel geometry provides a smooth reference slope while preserving the correct cross-sectional flow area and the piezometric pressure gradient that drives the flow.