Coupling of two- and three-dimensional hydrodynamic numerical models for simulating wind-induced currents in deep basins

The main interest of the present study is the simulation of wind-induced currents in closed water bodies with shallow and deep regions. This paper describes a low time consumption numerical modelling technique for the simulation of free-surface flow over a geometrically complex bed. To achieve this, a technique employing coupled two- and three-dimensional flow solvers is developed for simulation of the flow. The conjunctive model consists of an upper part 2D Shallow Water Flow Solver (2D-SWFS) coupled with a 3D pseudo-compressible flow solver (3D-PCFS) for the deep regions with a proper interface boundary condition. The 2D-SWFS and 3D-PCFS solvers are coupled via an interfacial shear stress gradient and pressure effects. Time stepping is performed for the 2D solver, and an iterative procedure is employed by the 3D solver to satisfy the equilibrium constraints for the interfacial boundary. The model is able to consider 2D wetting and drying shallow regions without any underlying deep water. Both the 2D and 3D models use nodal based Galerkin finite volume method (GFVM) for solving the governing equations on the unstructured meshes. The accuracy of both models in solving the effective phenomena is examined by comparing the results of simulated test cases with readily available analytical solutions and experimental measurements. Finally, the accuracy of the conjunctive model is assessed by comparing its results for test cases with analytical solutions and experimental measurements from the literature. The new simulation method is then used to solve a wind-induced flow problem in a basin with deep water surrounded by shallow water parts.