DAM BREAK WAVE SIMULATION

GOUTAL N., MAUREL F.

EDF - Laboratoire National d’Hydraulique

6 Quai Watier, 78400 Chatou, France
e-mail : Nicole.Goutal@edfgdf.fr

ABSTRACT
After the description of the context for EDF company, the 1D shallow water equations
are presented in their conservative form. The method developed using a Roe solver is
described with a particular attention to source terms. A section is dedicated to the
channel junction modelisation. For this, a simplified 1D-2D coupling has been
developped with the MASCARET model. We present results obtained for a real dam-
break wave simulation.

INTRODUCTION
The first European law on dam-break risk analysis was presented in France in 1968,
following the 1959 Malpasset dam-break which was responsible for more than 400
injuries. The decree makes it compulsory for the owners of the largest dams to set up
emergency plans, including a simulation of the would-be flood wave, along with maps
showing flooded areas and wave arrival times.
LNH (Laboratoire National d’Hydraulique of EDF) has had a lot of experience with dam-
break modelling: in the mid 60’s, work started at the lab to develop industrial numerical
tools for the prediction of dam break flood waves, and the first studies to fulfil the legal
requirements were delivered in the early 70’s; since then calculations for about 100
dam-breaks have been made by LNH in France. However, the new law obliged EDF to
reconsider modelling practice, and it was also obvious that the numerical tools had to be
improved.
Dam-break induced wave simulation are complex because of the geometry (steep bed-
slopes, important section variations), wave propagation over dry areas downstream the
dam, presence of other dams downstream which may break or not, and tributaries.
Furthermore, some of the studies need a two dimensional treatment (for instance, when
a river reaches a coastal plain).
These particularities lead to a very fast flow propagation over dry areas with important
transitions between supercritical and subcritical flows. A conservative and very robust
scheme is thus needed to compute this flow.
This paper deals with the last numerical developments done at EDF on 1D software
(MASCARET) using a finite volume scheme. A Roe scheme is used and a special
attention has been paid to the treatment of source terms. We will describe our work on
channel junction modelisation, which is essential to model a real valley with its
tributaries.
In the last chapter, we will present the results obtained on a real application of dam
break wave simulation.
 THE 1D SHALLOW-WATER EQUATIONS
The 1D free surface flows in river are governed by the shallow-water equations. They
result from a vertical integration of the Navier-Stokes equations with the following
hypothesis : incompressible fluid, hydrostatic pressure.

Cross-section
Free surface

Q (x,t)
Hydraulic section
River bottom S (x,t)
Longitudinal view Cross-section

Figure 1. 1D river geometry

The 1D shallow-water equations ([AFI 86]) read in conservative form:

∂W ∂F(W,x)
+ = B(W,x)
∂t ∂x

with
Q  qa 
   
S  2
w =   F = Q B =  h
∂S ∂ Z 
 Q  + P(S, x)   g ∫ ( ) dy − gS f − gSJ 
 S   
   0 ∂x h ∂x 

where x is the space coordinate, t the time, h the water level, S the hydraulic section
(see Fig. 1), Q the discharge, Zf the bottom level, g the gravity acceleration, qa the local
Z
discharge, P the pressure defined as P = g ∫ S( x , z) dz , J the friction term defined
Z
f
2
Q
as J = , K being the Strickler coefficient and Rh the hydraulic radius.
4
K 2S 2 R 3
h

Remarks :
- The flux depends not only on W but also on x due to the pressure term which can be
computed only if the hydraulic section and hydraulic section variations in terms of water
elevation are known. Therefore, the previous term depends on the geometry of the river
which is not analytically known.
- The source term linked to the geometry can be written in terms of pressure.

NUMERICAL SCHEME

3.1 FINITE VOLUME DISCRETISATION FOR THE HOMOGENEOUS PROBLEM

The problem (P) to solve reads :
Ω a bounded open set of R or R 2 , Γ its boundary

 ∂w(x, t)
 ∂t + div F(w) = 0

( P) w(x,o) = w 0 (x)
boundary conditions on Γ , x ∈ Ω , t ∈ 0,T
 [ ]


Let Ω h be an Ω triangulation and c i a cell of Ω h

let set Vh =  ϕ h ∈ L 2 (Ω), ϕ h c = constant 

 i 
The discretized solution W h is looked for in the space Vh.
Usually, a variationnal formulation of the Cauchy problem (P) is written. Then, by
integrating by part and using the Green formula, the initial problem (P) is transformed
into :

 ∂w
h dx +
∫∫c ∫∂c F( w h , x) dx + ∫Γ F( w h , x)dΓ = 0
 i ∂t i
w ( x,0) known
 h

3.1.1 Time discretisation :

The interval [0,T] is discretised in n sub-intervalls [tn,tn+1]. The time scheme is the
classical Euler scheme which is first order in time.
∆t
w in,h+1 = w in,h − Φ ( w nh )
area ( c )
i

where w in,h+1 = ∫ w nh+1dx, w in,h = ∫ w nh dx , Φ ( w h ) = ∫ F( w hn , x)dΓ

c
i
c
i ∂c
i
3.1.2 Space discretisation :
This section deals with the numerical treatment of the flux term. The evaluation of the
numerical flux needs the solution of a 1D Riemann problem on each edge of the cell ci.
To solve this Riemann problem, we choose the method proposed by Roe ( [ROE 81]) to
construct a linearised Riemann problem. This method has been widely described in the
literature ([BUF 93], [PAQ 95]).
In order to avoid bad numerical behaviour at the sonic point, an entropic correction is
added to the scheme ([LEV 90]).

3.2 SOURCE TERMS

Source terms play a great role in the shallow water equations and a bad numerical
treatment would lead to a dramatic loss of accuracy ; for instance, flat water initially at
rest is put artificially in movement. It might also prevent the convergence to a real steady
state at constant discharge.
An upwind discretisation has been retained. Most of the ideas we use come from the
thesis of M.E. VAZQUEZ CENDON ([VAZ 94]).

JUNCTION MODELISATION
Junction of two rivers have to be treated in the frame of the 1D software in order to
model storage of water in a tributary, release with a time delay for real cases of dam
break wave. To solve this problem, a simplified 1D-2D coupling has been developed.
From a schematic point of view, the 1D domain is composed by three reaches joining at
the confluence ; two of them form the main valley and the last one is a tributary.
The problem for a 1D software is to know the value of the hydraulic section S and of the
discharge Q in the three particular points A, B, C so that they can be considered as
boundary conditions for each reach (see Fig. 2). These values are calculated at each
time step with a 2D computation. The junction is modelised by a simplified 2D
representation with 12 cells (see Fig. 2):
- 6 cells, defining an hexagon, modelise the junction in itself and can be defined as
exchange cells.
- 6 cells cover the 1D domain (2 per reach ; the last cell a (resp b,c) of the 1D reach and
its mirror cell A (resp B, C)).
The junction hexagon has a geometry similar with the real one. It is built using the
direction of the reaches and the width of the valleys. This ensures a good repartion of
the discharge in the different reaches.
The 2D shallow water equations are solved in this 12 cells model using a numerical
scheme similar to the 1D scheme described before. The input are S and Q in a, b, c at
time step n from the 1D code. The output are the searched values at time step n+1 in
cell A, B, C which will become boundary conditions for the 3 independant 1D models.
Using two finite volume schemes for both 1D and 2D models, the calculation ensures
mass conservation.
A comparison between 1D and 2D models have been done to validate the junction
model. The results are in a quite good agreement.

Reach 2
b b
B B
Reach 1
a A
a A

C C
V
c V
c

Reach 3

Figure 2 : 1D model with a junction (left) and 2D modelisation of the junction

 PRESENTATION OF A REAL STUDY
The software described in the previous chapters has already been used to perform
many real studies. In order to illustrate the complexity of such simulations, we will show
the results obtained on a dam break wave simulation on a real valley.
The features of this computation are :
• main dam height = 120 m
• resevoir capacity = 480 106 M3
• valley length = 350 km
• six tributaries (all the junctions are treated with the modelisation described in the
chapter 4)
• 4 dams downstream the main dam : 2 of them resist all along the simulation and the
others collapse when the wave arrives,
• initially, the valley dowstream the main dam is dry except in the reservoirs

On figure 3, the water level at time 1 h 43 mn is presented. We can notice that the dams
1 and 4 have already collapsed and the dams 2 and 3 resist to the flow. The overtopping
has been modelled as a flow over a weir.

Figure 3: dam break wave simulation

On figure 4, we can remark the important variations of the Froude number which can
reach value as high as 10. The peaks of discharge are due to the successive breaking of
dams in the valley.

Figure 4: dam break wave simulation in a real valley

CONCLUSION
The special treatment of source terms together with the P0 approximation allows us to
have a good behaviour regarding the problems of propagation over dry areas with high
geometry variations. Although a strict CFL condition has to be applied due to the explicit
scheme, the computation is still quite fast.
In the framework of a European Concerted Action (CADAM), an important work of
validation against analytical solution and schematical physical models has been
achieved.
Moreover, developpements have been done in order to model compound channel. So,
the software MASCARET deals a quite important number of applications (dam-break
wave simulation, flood propagation, reservoir emptying, flow computation in a mountain
stream)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
[AFI 86] M. AFIF
«Analyse numérique de quelques problèmes hyperboliques issus de la
modélisation des crues de rivières»
 Thèse de l’université de Saint-Etienne, Juin 1986.
[BRA 94] G. BRASCHI, F. DADONE, M. GALLATI
«Plain flooding : near field and far field simulations»
Proceedings of the Specialty Conference» Modelling of flood propagation over
initially dry areas, 1994.
[BUF 93] T. BUFFARD
«Analyse de quelques méthodes volumes finis non structurés pour la résolution
des équations d’Euler»
Thèse de l’Université Paris VI, 1993.
[LEV 90] R.J. LEVEQUE
«Numerical methods for conservation laws.»
Lecture in mathematics ETH Zurich ,1990.
[NAA 94] M. NAAIM, G. BRUGNOT
«Free surface flow modelling on a complex topography»
Proceedings of the Specialty Conference» Modelling of flood propagation over
initially dry areas, 1994.
[PAQ 95] A. PAQUIER
«Modélisation et simulation de la propagation de l’onde de rupture de barrage»
Thèse de l’Université Jean Monnet, Octobre 1995.
[ROE 81] P.L. ROE (1981)
«Approximate Riemann solvers parameters vectors, and difference schemes»
Jour. of Comp. Ph 43, pp. 357-372, 1991.
[VAZ 94] VAZQUEZ CENDON M.E.
«Estudio de esquemas descentrados para su aplicacion a las leyes de
conservacion hiperbolicas con teminos fuente»
Tesis doctoral Universidad Santago de Compostella, Spain, 1994.