Numerical Simulation of Flooding Process on Downstream Structure by Three-dimensional Dam-break Wave

Abstract

Dam break caused by natural disasters, such as heavy rainfall, poses a potential threat to the safety of downstream structures. It brings damages to the structures with a strong nonlinearity and complex mechanism. Based on an in-house three-dimensional parallel model, the dynamic response process of the fluid-structure interaction caused by water disasters is investigated. The accelerated computing is achieved by the parallel algorithm, the free surface is captured by the volume of fluid method, and the fluid-structure interaction is dealt with by the immersed boundary method. While a quantitative forecast of the flow velocity and impact load during the dam-break flood is carried out, the reliability of the mathematical models in dealing with the fluid-structure interaction of water disasters is demonstrated by real-life cases and published data comparison. Dam break wave carries a large amount of kinetic and potential energies. The information of the whole flow field describes the disaster-causing flow patterns that change many times in a short period. Water advancing and falling make it easy to form scouring, and the impact load transmitted to the structure is apt to damage the engineering structure. This study of disaster-causing mechanism provides a scientific basis for disaster prevention and mitigation.

Keywords

• three-dimensional dam break waves
• model development
• parallel computation
• hydrodynamic behavior
• numerical simulation