Smoothed particle hydrodynamics model applied to hydraulic structures: a hydraulic jump test case.

The capability of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) to reproduce a mobile hydraulic jump was investigated.A similar case was used to generate different upstream Froude numbers to obtain several jump shapes. A physical model was then constructed in a test flume to check the SPH outcomes. The results showed good agreement for Froude numbers <5. Higher Froude numbers require more sophisticated turbulence closure models to obtain better results. Good outcomes can be achieved with k-ε models, but the computational cost is higher than for basic SPH. Instead, a simple method was implemented to increase the viscosity in areas of higher vorticity. In this case, the main difference is related to the dependence of the viscosity on the vorticity. This approach yielded better adjustment. Finally, it was found that SPH provides correct estimates of the average pressures at the boundaries, but exhibits large dispersion for instantaneous water height values. This problem was considerably attenuated by introduction of a turbulence model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]