Comparison between the Lagrangian and Eulerian Approach for Simulating Regular and Solitary Waves Propagation, Breaking and Run-Up

Abstract

The present paper places emphasis on the most widely used Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approaches, namely the Eulerian and Lagrangian methods each of which is characterized by specific advantages and disadvantages. In particular, a weakly compressible smoothed particle (WCSPH) model, coupled with a sub-particle scale (SPS) approach for turbulent stresses and a new depth-integrated non-hydrostatic finite element model were employed for the simulation of regular breaking waves on a plane slope and solitary waves transformation, breaking and run-up. The validation of the numerical schemes was performed through the comparison between numerical and experimental data. The aim of this study is to compare the two modeling methods with an emphasis on their performance in the simulation of hydraulic engineering problems.

Keywords

• Eulerian method
• Lagrangian method
• smoothed particle hydrodynamics models
• finite element method
• wave transformation
• breaking