A modified lattice Boltzmann model for shallow water flows over complex topography

Abstract

SummaryA modified lattice Boltzmann model is proposed to describe shallow water flows over complex topography. In the proposed model, the quadratic depth term is excluded from the equilibrium distribution functions (EDFs), and the hydrostatic pressure term is combined with the bed slope term to be treated as a part of the sourcing term in the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE). Therefore, it is unnecessary to match the coefficients of the quadratic depth term in the EDFs with those of the bed slope term in the sourcing terms in the LBE. This would bring more flexibility to the treatment of the sourcing terms in the LBE. In order to recover the shallow water equations (SWEs), the basic constraints are redefined, and under these constraints, the coefficients of the EDFs are derived afterwards. Several benchmark problems are used to validate the proposed model, including stationary case, steady flows over a two‐dimensional bump and tidal wave flows over irregular bed elevation. The computed results are in excellent agreement with the results of the other numerical methods and the analytical solutions, indicating that the proposed model is capable of simulating shallow water flows over complex bathymetry. It also proves that the proposed model has potential to produce competitive solutions to shallow water flows over complex bed topography. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.