Numerical simulation of dam-break flows with a high resolution finite volume method

In this paper, a numerical method for dam-break flows is presented. The method is based on the 2D shallow water equations with bed shear stress source terms. The equations are discretized and solved with the MUSCL-Hancock finite volume upwind scheme, in which the fluxes at cell interfaces are determined by the HLL approximate Riemann solver. The method is applied to predict a dam-break flow into an open channel. This demonstrated that the model is able to predict water surface with small amplitude waves as observed in real dam-break flows. The results are compared with experimental data of the CADAM project, which shows a good agreement. The method is conservative and robust.