A Reproducible Approach to Unstructured Mesh Generatino for Shallow Water Models

Proceedings, 8th International Meshing Roundtable, South Lake Tahoe, CA, U.S.A., pp.345-354, October 1999

MESHING
RESEARCH
CORNER

Olaf Horstmann
Brandenburg Technological University, Cottbus, Germany
Email: homann@bauinf.tu-cottbus.de

Abstract
The successful implementation of a finite element model for computing shallow water flow requires: 1) continuity and momentum equations to describe the physics of the flow, 2) boundary conditions, 3) a discrete, algebraic form of the shallow water equations ajid boundary conditions, and 4) a discrete surface water region. Each aspect of the first three categories may be documented and can be duplicated by multiple scientific investigators, however, the actual spatial discretization of the domain, i.e., unstructured mesh generation, is not a reproducible process at present.

In this paper we present a reproducible approach for generating unstructured, triangular grids, which combines a hierarchical technique with a localized truncation error analysis as a means to incorporate flow variables and their derivatives. The result is a process that lays the groundwork for achieving reproducible finite element grids that can be used to model shallow water flow accurately and efficiently. The methodology described herein can also be transferred to other modeling applications.

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