On the application of a Boussinesq model to river flows including shocks

SERR-1D is a 4th-order finite volume 1D Boussinesq model including wave breaking energy dissipation through extra diffusive-like terms. This model has been primarily conceived to compute wave propagation in coastal areas and has been validated for breaking and non-breaking waves propagating over uneven bathymetries (Cienfuegos et al., 2005, 2006a, b, 2007). The present paper aims at investigating the ability of SERR-1D to simulate challenging fluvial hydraulic applications such as sudden gate operation in open channels generating short waves, dam-break flows and a steady hydraulic jump over a bump. The performance of the absorbing-generating boundary condition implemented in SERR-1D is first analysed in the context of fluvial applications where relatively short waves must be evacuated from the computational domain without producing spurious reflection. Next, by comparing numerical results to analytical and experimental dam-break test cases we show that the model is able to reproduce the overall features of these flows, but that additional care should be paid to the representation of energy dissipation and front speed in order to accurately represent bore dynamics.