Simulation of braided river flow using a new cellular routing scheme

Abstract

Results are presented from a numerical simulation of two-dimensional flow patterns in a braided river using a simple cellular routing scheme. The results of the routing scheme are compared with field measurements of discharge per unit width obtained within the study reach at low flow and, for higher flows, with the predictions of a more sophisticated hydraulic model that solves the two-dimensional shallow water form of the Navier–Stokes equations. An assessment is made of the sensitivity of the routing scheme to variations in the values of its main parameters, and appropriate values are determined based on the physical characteristics of the study site and available flow measurements. It is shown that despite the simple approach adopted by the cellular routing scheme to simulate processes of water redistribution, it is able to replicate accurately both the field data and the results of the more sophisticated hydraulic model. These results indicate that the routing scheme outlined here is able to overcome some of the limitations of previous simple cellular automata models and may be suitable for use in modelling bedload transport and channel change in complex fluvial environments. As such this research represents a small and ongoing contribution to the field of numerical simulation of braided river processes.