ENO-discretizations in MOL-applications: some examples in river hydraulics

Abstract

Hydrological processes, like the water flow or transport of soluble substances in rivers, are usually described by partial differential equations (PDEs). The numerical solution of these equations offer various fields of important applications, e.g., the prediction of water stages during floods or low water periods (optimal load capacity of the ships) and the prediction of the fate of pollution plumes in case of an accident. The aim is to develop numerical schemes that are applicable to mostly all those simulations and well-tested with respect to their stability and efficiency. The method of lines (MOL)-approach was found to be a suitable numerical technique to solve the whole class of the discussed problems. The subject of this paper is the comparison of different numerical schemes for the space discretizations in the MOL-approach, in particular the ENO-discretizations which are found to be very useful even when sharp gradients occur.