Simulation of Flood Flows in a River Using the Finite Element Method

Abstract

Due to the difficulty in measurement of transverse velocity in floods, it is necessary to use appropriate models for this aim. Hydrodynamic complexity of the flow in the middle of the flood is another reason for usage of precise models. Accurate prediction of flows is very difficult due to the complexity of its nature and the lack of accurate data. Here, two-dimensional modeling of the flood has been done using the finite element method (FEM). The case study is a real field river. The achieved results from the finite element model are compared with the observational data at three stations. In order to evaluate the model performance, the root mean square error (RMSE) is calculated. The relative error and the RMSE are 0.143 and 0.229 m, respectively. This amount of value indicates the high accuracy of the proposed model. In addition, computational cost including time spending and efficiency of FEM is satisfactory and this model can be used as a good tool for flow simulation.