A variable boundary method for modelling two dimensional free surface flows with moving boundaries

A coordinate transformation method is proposed for modelling unsteady, depth-averaged shallow water equations for a open channel flow with moving lateral boundaries. The transformation technique which maps the changing domain onto a fixed domain and solves the governing equations in the mapped domain, facilitates the numerical treatment of an irregular boundary configuration. The transformed equations are solved on a staggered grid with a conditionally stable, explicit finite difference scheme. Several numerical experiments are carried out corresponding to different situations, viz., flow with constant discharge, flow with constant discharge and a closed boundary at the downstream, flow in a converging channel with constant discharge and finally flow with varying discharge. The experiments are used to verify the model ability to predict free surface elevation, circulatory pattern and displacement of the boundaries. The simulated results such as displaced area, depth, displacement–time and flow-field are used to evaluate the effects of excess discharge at the upstream on the movement of lateral boundaries.