Comparative analysis of numerical solutions of 2D unsteady dambreak waves using FVM and SPH method

Abstract This work presents a comparison of two-dimensional numerical solutions of unsteady free surface flow. This is a simulation of the dam-break wave with different configurations using based-mesh finite volume method and meshless smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). Two well-known approaches, widely used in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). These techniques have proven their robustness in the numerical treatment of such conservation laws. The main goal is to check the ability of the SPH method and the first order finite volume HLLC solver to reproduce the numerical solutions of the 2D shallow water equations. Based on many benchmark tests, one investigates the effect of the topographic variation along the x and y directions on behavior of the numerical solutions namely at the wet-dry front. The comparison between the simulated results, the analytical solutions and the experimental measurements shows a good correlation, although the finite volume approach remains more advantageous in terms of accuracy and the CPU time.