Assessment of numerical schemes for solving the advection–diffusion equation on unstructured grids: case study of the Guaíba River, Brazil
Författare
Summary, in English
In this work, a first-order upwind and a high-order flux-limiter schemes for solving the advection–diffusion equation on unstructured grids were evaluated. The numerical schemes were implemented as a module of an unstructured two-dimensional depth-averaged circulation model for shallow lakes (IPH-UnTRIM2D), and they were applied to the Guaíba River in Brazil. Their performances were evaluated by comparing mass conservation balance errors for two scenarios of a passive tracer released into the Guaíba River. The circulation model showed good agreement with observed data collected at four water level stations along the Guaíba River, where correlation coefficients achieved values up to 0.93. In addition, volume conservation errors were lower than 1% of the total volume of the Guaíba River. For all scenarios, the higher order flux-limiter scheme has been shown to be less diffusive than a first-order upwind scheme. Accumulated conservation mass balance errors calculated for the flux limiter reached 8%, whereas for a first-order upwind scheme, they were close to 18% over a 15-day period. Although both schemes have presented mass conservation errors, these errors are assumed negligible compared with kinetic processes such as erosion, sedimentation or decay rates.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2013
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
1113-1125
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics
Volym
20
Issue
6
Fulltext
- Available as PDF - 12 MB
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Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Copernicus GmbH, European Geosciences Union
Ämne
- Water Engineering
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1023-5809