A Graphical Environment for Multi-Dimensional Surface Water Modeling

by Alan K. Zundel,
Norman L. Jones,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: North American Water and Environment Congress & Destructive Water

Abstract:

Recently the Engineering Computer Graphics Laboratory of Brigham Young University in conjunction with the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station and the Federal Highway Administration has developed a Surface Water Modeling System (SMS). Originally SMS included tools for automatic mesh generation for two-dimensional finite element models and interfaces to hydrodynamic analysis codes, coupled with visualization techniques for numerical solutions for these models. The effectiveness of these tools stimulated interest in providing similar modeling techniques for multiple dimensional problems and analysis codes. Therefore, new tools have been added to SMS which allows the user to create and visualize one-dimensional numerical models automatically from two- dimensional terrain data. Two-dimensional meshes can then be automatically generated using one-dimensional model output coupled with the terrain data if required. In addition, two-dimensional meshes have been augmented to include one- dimensional elements for less complicated flow regions of a model. Finally, SMS allows the user to assign layer information to portions of the two-dimensional mesh to convert it to a three-dimensional model. The system now supports a variety of surface water modeling codes including WSPRO for one-dimensional modeling, FESWMS, RMA-2 and HIVEL2D for two dimensional modeling, and RMA-lO for three-dimensional modeling.

Subject Headings: Two-dimensional models | Three-dimensional models | Computer models | Finite element method | Surface water | Numerical models | Graphic methods

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