A Short Review on Computational Hydraulics in the context of Water Resources Engineering

Abstract

The term hydraulics concerned with the conveyance of water that can consist of very simple processes to complex physical processes, such as flow in open rivers, flow in pipes, flow of nutrients/sediments, flow of ground water to sea waves. The study of hydraulics is primarily a mixture of theory and experiments. Computational hydraulics is very helpful in-order to quantify and predict flow nature and behavior. Mathematical model is backbone of the computational hydraulics that consist simple to complex mathematical equations with linear and/or non-linear terms and ordinary or partial differential equations. Analytical solution of this mathematical equations is not feasible in the majority of cases. In this consequences, mathematical models are solved using different numerical techniques and associated schemes. In this manuscript we will review hydraulic principles along with their mathematical equations. Then we will learn some commonly used numerical technique to solve different types of differential equations related to the hydraulics. Among them the Finite Difference Method (FDM), Finite Element Method (FEM) and Finite Volume Method (FVM) will be discussed along with their use in real-life applications in the context of water resources engineering.