Numerical Simulation of Bed Load and Suspended Load Sediment Transport Using Well-Balanced Numerical Schemes

Abstract

Sediment transport can be modelled using hydrodynamic models based on shallow water equations coupled with the sediment concentration conservation equation and the bed conservation equation. The complete system of equations is made up of the energy balance law and the Exner equations. The numerical solution for this complete system is done in a segregated manner. First, the hyperbolic part of the system of balance laws is solved using a finite volume scheme. Three ways to compute the numerical flux have been considered, the Q-scheme of van Leer, the HLLCS approximate Riemann solver, and the last one takes into account the presence of non-conservative products in the model. The discretisation of the source terms is carried out according to the numerical flux chosen. In the second stage, the bed conservation equation is solved by using the approximation computed for the system of balance laws. The numerical schemes have been validated making comparisons between the obtained numerical results and the experimental data for some physical experiments. The numerical results show a good agreement with the experimental data.