2D Zero-Inertia Model for Solution of Overland Flow Problems in Flexible Meshes

Abstract

A study of the efficiency of a zero-inertia model (ZI) for two-dimensional (2D) overland flow simulation is presented in this work. An upwind numerical scheme is used for the spatial discretization in the frame of finite-volume methods and an implicit formulation is chosen to avoid numerical instability. The scheme is applied in both structured and unstructured meshes, focusing in the latter ones due to their good adaptability. The ZI equation has a nonlinear character; hence, a linearization is required in the implicit procedure. This is carried out by means of Picard iterations method as a previous step to the system matrix resolution, characteristic of implicit techniques. The BiConjugate Gradient Stabilized (BiCGStab) method combined with sparse storage strategies is selected for the system resolution. A dual-threshold incomplete lower upper factorization (ILUT) is chosen as matrix preconditioner. Computational efficiency of the implicit temporal discretization for ZI model is explored under both steady and unsteady flow conditions by comparing the CPU times against the explicit version of the same model.