tidal flow simulation using finite volume method

Jason Qiu

Hi! I am a graduate student who studies hydrodynamics. I studied the subject of Port & Coastal Engineering in my undergraduate period. I want to do some research on numerical models for tidal flow (current) of coastal areas in graduate period. I do not have much knowledge about numerical simulation. I only scanned some papers about this subject. I find the FVM (Finite Volume Method) is relatively a new method and many scholars have proved that it has a lot of merits compared with FDM (Finite Difference Method) and FEM (Finite Element Method). I have collected some materials about FVM. But most of them are about Dam-Break problems. So I am not sure if the FVM is also a good method when it comes to the tidal flow simulation of coastal areas.

I want make a program to solve the hyperbolic 2D shallow water equations (1 continuity eq, 2 momentum eqs) by FVM. I plan to consider the source terms of bottom slope and bottom friction. I plan to use the triangular mesh because it can be generated automatically. The computer language I plan to use is Matlab (Matrix Laboratory). In this language I can use the INITMESH command to generate meshes and use QUIVER command to plot fluid velocity vectors as arrows.

Because I am a beginner of this subject, I do not know if what I plan to do is reasonable and I do not know how I can do the job. I need help with this.

Thank you for your attention!

Jason Qiu

Jsnq@sina.com