Two dimensional modelling of free surface flows

Quick Start Guide

Iber v1.0
14.07.2010
 Two dimensional modelling of free surface flows

QUICK START GUIDE

1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 3

2. PRE-PROCESS ......................................................................................... 4

2.1. Introduction ......................................................................................... 4

2.2. Creating or importing a geometry............................................................ 4

2.2.1. Menu “Iber_Tools > DTM” ................................................................. 5

2.2.2. Menu “Iber_Tools > RTIN” ................................................................ 6

2.2.3. “Iber_Tools > CELLS Surf” ................................................................ 7

2.2.4. Importing a TIN generated with a GIS ................................................ 7

2.3. Hydrodynamic Conditions ....................................................................... 8

2.3.1. Initial conditions .............................................................................. 8

2.3.2. Inlet Boundary Conditions ................................................................. 8

2.3.3. Outlet Boundary Conditions ............................................................... 9

2.3.4. Internal conditions ...........................................................................9

2.4. Roughness ........................................................................................... 9

2.4.1. Assigning roughness according to soil type .......................................... 9

2.4.2. Automatic roughness assigning with geo-referenced data ..................... 9

2.5. Hydrological Processes ......................................................................... 11

2.5.1. Rainfall ......................................................................................... 11

2.5.2. Infiltration losses ........................................................................... 12

2.6. Sediment Transport ............................................................................. 12

2.6.1. Non-erodible layer ......................................................................... 12

2.6.2. Bedload discharge Sediment graph .................................................. 12

2.6.3. Suspended Load Inlet ..................................................................... 12

2.6.4. Suspended Load Source .................................................................. 13

 Two dimensional modelling of free surface flows

2.6.5. Initial Suspended Sediment Concentration ........................................ 13

2.7. Wind.................................................................................................. 13

2.8. Initial and Boundary Conditions for the k-ε Turbulence Model ................... 13

2.9. Encroachment ..................................................................................... 13

2.10. Meshing ........................................................................................... 14

2.10.1. Menu “Iber_Tools > Edit Mesh” ...................................................... 15

3. COMPUTATION ..................................................................................... 16

3.1. Running a Computation ........................................................................ 16

3.2. Calculation Parameters ........................................................................ 16

3.2.1. Time Parameters ........................................................................... 16

3.2.2. Calculation Parameters (General Tab)............................................... 17

3.2.3. Results Selection ........................................................................... 17

3.2.4. Choosing the Turbulence Model ....................................................... 17

3.2.5. Selecting a Sediment Transport Model .............................................. 18

3.2.6. Encroachment ............................................................................... 18

4. POST-PROCESS ..................................................................................... 19

4.1. Results Visualization ............................................................................ 19

4.2. Creating graphs .................................................................................. 20

4.3. Exporting the results in Raster format .................................................... 20

4.4. Flow through a line .............................................................................. 20

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1. INTRODUCTION

Iber is a numerical model for simulation of turbulent free surface unsteady flow and environmental
processes in river hydraulics. The ranges of application of Iber cover river hydrodynamics, dam-break
simulation, flood inundation modelling, sediment transport calculation and tidal currents in estuaries.
The latest version of Iber consists of three main computational modules: a hydrodynamic module, a
turbulence module and a sediment transport module. All of them work over a non-structured finite
volume mesh made up of triangular and/or quadrilateral elements.

This manual is a basic guide for using the software. Some of the basic operations to develop a project,
make calculations and visualize results are shown. Both pre-process and post-process modules have
much more operating options than those explained in this manual. The Iber user interface is based on
GID (www.gidhome.com), a pre-process and post-process software developed by CIMNE. More detailed
information on Iber’s capabilities, equations, numerical schemes can be found on the hydraulic
reference manual.

Iber can be installed in Spanish or English, the user may change the language of the software in the
menu Utilities > Preferences.

To make a two-dimensional hydraulic simulation it is necessary to have a solid base in hydraulics, river
dynamics and numerical modelling, and it is advisable to previously attend an introductive course on the
software. This manual should be viewed as a summary and should not be used as a full guide to perform
a successful simulation.

As a complement to this basic manual it is advised to have a look at the tutorials available for download
at www.iberaula.com.

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2. PRE-PROCESS

2.1. Introduction

In order to carry out a calculation with Iber, the following steps are required:

Create or import a Geometry

Assign a series of input parameters (bed roughness, turbulence model, etc)

Assign boundary and initial conditions

Set the problem data (time of calculation, numerical scheme parameters, additional modules
requirements)

Build a numerical mesh

Start the computation

The boundary and initial conditions, and most of the input parameters, can be set over the geometry or
over the numerical mesh. When assigning conditions to the geometry, they are transferred to the mesh
upon its creation, while those conditions set to the mesh are deleted when the mesh is rebuilt. To
generate a mesh the geometry must be formed by surfaces.

2.2. Creating or importing a geometry

In order to import a geometry, first it is necessary to create and save a new project. The project is saved
in the computer as a folder with the selected name and the extension .gid.

Iber presents a user interface in which geometries can be created from scratch, drawing points (directly
in the screen or entering coordinates), lines and surfaces. At the same time, from the menu File>Import
different standard geometry formats can be imported (.dxf, .shp, among others). Finally, from the menu
Iber_Tools digital terrain models can be imported from Arc Info ASCII format files.

Once the geometry is created or imported, it’s possible to edit or modify it using the options in the
menu Geometry.

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2.2.1. Menu “Iber_Tools > DTM”

The submenu Combine/Divide DTM creates a series of new ASCII files based on the ASCII (with .txt
extension) files in a folder. The number of rows and columns of the resulting files can be chosen. After
this operation, a file called dtms_file.dat is created showing the list of the new ASCII files.

The submenu Import DTM allows importing a single ASCII file or a series of files when selecting the
created dtms_file.dat.

1)

2) 3)

NOTE 1: Importing the DTM files in this way, with NURBS surfaces, gives good results for relatively smooth geometries. Highly
irregular geometries (for example buildings) can lead to folded surfaces, which may lead to poorly conditioned meshes. A good
option is to combine the imported files in this way with a limited cordal error mesh (see Utilities/Preferences/Mesh), and in the
case of importing more than one surface, the RJUMP mesh (in which the surface division lines have no impact).

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2.2.2. Menu “Iber_Tools > RTIN”

With this menu geometries can be created or imported from a Rectangular Triangulated Irregular
Network (RTIN). With the submenu create RTIN, a DTM ASCII file is selected, creating a file called
rtin.dxf inside the Iber project folder. When creating the file, the user must indicate the minimum and
maximum length of the triangles which will be generated, and also a tolerance (maximum vertical
distance between the DTM and the generated geometry) which should be close to the altimetric
precision of the DTM.

With the submenu import RTIN the RTIN which was created can be imported in Iber. To do this, the
rtin.dxf file is selected from the project folder. The imported file must be collapsed, since the triangles
have been imported as independent elements, meaning that they do not share common lines between
them. Collapsing the file may take a while, so it’s possible to cancel the process in case the user wants to
modify the imported RTIN.

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NOTE 1: Using RTIN’s usually produces geometries with a good approximation to the real topography, with an optimized
number of elements and very robust from a numerical point of view.

NOTE 2: A recommended possibility to generate the computational mesh from this geometry is to use a structured mesh over
surfaces, with one single division per line (Mesh > Structured > Surfaces > Assign number of divisions, select all the surfaces,
choose 1 as the number of divisions, and select all the lines)

2.2.3. “Iber_Tools > CELLS Surf”

With this menu (submenu Create CELLS) a surface for each raster cell of the DTM is created. The set of
surfaces is created as a file called REG_MESH.dxf, which must be imported and collapsed later, using the
submenu Import Cells.

NOTE 1: This choice imports the terrain model without losing precision, but on the other hand it creates a large number of
elements and therefore, the computational cost is high.

NOTE 2: A recommended possibility to generate the computational mesh from this geometry is to use a structured mesh over
surfaces, with a single division per line (Mesh > Structured > Surfaces > Assign number of divisions, select all the surfaces,
choose the number of division, 1 by default, and select all the lines)

2.2.4. Importing a TIN generated with a GIS

Another option to import a geometry from a DTM, as a triangulated irregular network (TIN), is to import
it directly from a shapefile generated in a GIS environment. It is recommended that the TIN be created

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from a raster layer (and not from contour lines or other entities) in order to assure that the triangles are
not too small.

NOTE 1: If the software ArcGIS is used, exporting the TIN to a shapefile is done with the option ArcToolbox > 3D Analyst Tools >
Conversion > From TIN > TIN triangle

NOTE 2: A good option to generate the computational mesh from this geometry is to use a structured mesh over surfaces, with
a single division per line (Mesh > Structured > Surfaces > Assign number of divisions, select all the surfaces, choose 1 as the
number of divisions, , and select all the lines)

2.3. Hydrodynamic Conditions

2.3.1. Initial conditions

The initial conditions must be assigned to the whole domain. The user can choose to assign either the
water depth or the water surface elevation.

2.3.2. Inlet Boundary Conditions

There is the possibility of assigning the total discharge, the specific discharge (discharge per unit width),
or the water level. For each case several parameters will be required depending on the flow regime
(subcritical, critical or supercritical).

NOTE 1: If a detail definition of the boundary condition is not avalable, a recommended alternative is to extend the domain far
downstream from the area of study, and to impose a critical depth boundary condition.

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2.3.3. Outlet Boundary Conditions

In this case, if the flow regime is subcritical, the user can choose between the following conditions: a
weir type condition, a water level condition (water level or depth) or a rating curve. If the flow regime is
critical or supercritical, it is not necessary to assign any boundary condition.

In order to use the rating curve condition, the project folder must have as many rating curves as the
user want to apply, and these must be called: rctable1.dat, rctable2.dat, rctable3.dat. Each of these
ASCII files has two columns which define the rating curve: in the first column the water level, and in the
second one the specific discharge. The water level must be introduced in an increasing order.

2.3.4. Internal conditions

With this menu different internal conditions can be assigned to the elements sides. The internal
conditions available are: weirs, gates, gate-weir combination, and a local loss coefficient. In the first
three cases, the length of the weir and the width of the gate should be specified as a percentage of the
side width, not as an absolute length.

2.4. Roughness

The bed roughness is defined as a Manning roughness coefficient, which is assigned to each element of
the mesh.

2.4.1. Assigning roughness according to soil type

The menu Roughness > Soil Type gives the possibility to choose a soil type and assign it to the surfaces
or mesh elements that form the geometry. There are predefined values assigned to each possible soil
use, but they can be changed. New Soil uses might be added to the existing ones.

2.4.2. Automatic roughness assigning with geo-referenced data

The automatic assigning of the roughness coefficient is done with the menu Data > Roughness >
Automatic assigning. This menu opens a new window where the user may choose the type of file from
where the soil type information will be read. Iber has two file formats implemented: standard Arc Info
ASCII Grid format and a specific XY format. In both cases a .csv file must exist in the same folder, which
contains a list of the different soil types which are going to be assigned, which itself must coincide with

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the existing database inside the program. If the soil classes do not exist, they may be created inside the
database using the manual assign window mentioned in section 2.4.1.

Once the desired format is selected and accepted, a new window will be opened to choose the file.
Upon selecting the right file, the program will read the information and automatically assign a Manning
roughness coefficient to all the corresponding elements of the mesh.

The information of the Manning roughness coefficient for the automatic assignation can be given in the
two following formats:

 ArcInfo ASCII Grid Format

In this case two files are required, the first one contains the roughness coefficient distribution and the
second one contains a list of all the classes/soil uses. Both files must have the same name and be
located in the same directory.

File "name1.txt" or "name1.txt" (name1 is any name): Arc Info ASCII Raster file which corresponds to
the spatial roughness distribution. The values which appear in the rows and columns of the file are the
soil type classes. These files can be generated with a GIS software.

File "name1.csv" (name1 is any name, but must be the same as the name of the first file): A CSV file
(values separated by commas) with a table in which each name of the soil type class has an assigned
number, with the format shown in the following figure. The names of the soil types can be declared in
English or Spanish.

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 XY database Format

As in the previous case, two files are needed, which must be located in the same folder.

File "name2.txt" (name2 is any name): A file containing a list of points with known Manning coefficient,
consisting of three columns separated by commas. The first column is the X coordinate, the second one
is the Y coordinate and the third one is the soil type class.

File "name2.csv": it has the same characteristics as the one described for the Arcinfo ASCII Grid format.

2.5. Hydrological Processes

In the menu Data > Hydrological Processes it is possible to assign a hyetograph and other infiltration loss
functions. These data is assigned over the surfaces of the geometry or over the elements of the mesh.

2.5.1. Rainfall

Rainfall is assigned as a hyetograph. Each time step of the hyetograph indicates the beginning of a
constant intensity block. The rainfall intensity is maintained constant until the start of the next time step
of the hyetograph.

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NOTE: In this case, the graph does not correspond to the introduced rainfall data.

2.5.2. Infiltration losses

The latest version of Iber considers three infiltration models: Horton, linear and Green-Ampt. The menu
Data > Hydrological Processes > Losses presents a window to enter the various parameters for each
model, which must be assigned to surfaces or elements of the mesh.

2.6. Sediment Transport

The menu Data > Sediment Transport allows the assignment of sediment transport conditions to the
geometry or to the mesh. The activation of the different computation modules, as well as the definition
of the general sediment transport parameters must be done in the menu Data > Problem Data.

2.6.1. Non-erodible layer

In the Rock Layer Position submenu a non-erodible layer can be defined. This non-erodible layer applies
for both the bedload and the suspended load modules.

2.6.2. Bedload discharge Sediment graph

The upstream bedload boundary conditions are defined in the Bedload Boundary Cond submenu. The
conditions can be assigned to lines in the contour of the geometry, or to the boundary faces of the
boundary elements. The following conditions are available:

• Clean water: no solid discharge at the inlet

• Drag capacity: the inlet solid discharge corresponds to the transport capacity of the flow at the inlet,
which itself depends on the bedload transport model chosen in Data > Problem Data

• Time Dependant: allows the user to assign a sedimentograph.

2.6.3. Suspended Load Inlet

The submenu Susp Sed at Inlet allows the user to assign a suspended sediment concentration (which
may be time dependant) to a discharge inlet boundary.

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2.6.4. Suspended Load Source

The submenu Susp Sed Source allows the user to assign a discharge source with a specific sediment
concentration, to any surface or element of the mesh.

NOTE: If this condition is applied to a surface, the condition is transferred to all the surface elements of the mesh, meaning that
the discharge will be multiplied by the number of elements which belong to the surface.

2.6.5. Initial Suspended Sediment Concentration

The submenu Susp Sed Initial Cond allows the user to assign an initial concentration of suspended
sediment.

2.7. Wind

In Data > Wind the two wind velocity components are assigned over the computational domain.

2.8. Initial and Boundary Conditions for the k-ε Turbulence Model

The menu Data > Turbulence allows the user to apply the boundary and initial conditions for the
turbulent kinetic energy k and its dissipation rate ε (uniform regime or imposed values).

NOTE: It is necessary to activate the turbulence module beforehand in Data > Problem Data

2.9. Encroachment

In the menu Iber_Tools > Encroachment it is possible to limit the extension of the flow due to an
encroachment.

The encroachment can be defined in two ways: by an axis line and a distance D, or by a polygon. With
the first option, the flow is limited to a region defined by the elements within an equal or smaller
distance D to the points which define the axis line. The second option defines the flow extension as the
area limited by the selected polygon.

The user can select the option desired using the menu Data > Problem Data > Encroachment.

In the menu Iber_Tools > Encroachment the user can select a line to define the axis for the first option,
or the set of lines that define the polygon for the second option. The set of lines that define the polygon
must be consecutive.

NOTE 1: The numbering of the points can be verified with the menu View > Label > Select

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NOTE 2: if the selected polygon does not include an inlet or outlet, they will not be considered in the computation, and
afterwards the domain will not get wet nor dry.

2.10. Meshing

The numerical mesh is a key element in order to obtain good results from the computation. In Iber there
are various ways of getting a good computational mesh. Depending on the characteristics of the
problem, the choice of a specific mesh type can produce better results and reduce the computational
time.

Iber can work with triangular or quadrilateral elements, or with mixed meshes. The computational
meshes can be regular or irregular, as well as structured or non-structured.

The characteristics of the mesh are assigned with the following menus:

• The menu Utilities > Preferences > Meshing allows the user to set up the general meshing
options.

• In the menu Mesh the geometric properties of the mesh are defined.

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Iber saves the meshing options of the last session. If the user wants to re-mesh a model with the same
options used previously, these can be recovered with the menu Mesh > Mesh Options from Model, or at
the moment of generating the mesh (Mesh > Generate Mesh), checking on Getting Parameters from
Model.

NOTE: Iber is a two-dimensional model, and thus it is necessary for the horizontal projection of all elements to have a non zero
area. Furthermore, the smaller this area is, the bigger the computational time is.

2.10.1. Menu “Iber_Tools > Edit Mesh”

Once the mesh has been generated, it is possible to modify the elevation of the mesh vertices using the
information read from a digital terrain model in Arc Info ASCII format. This is useful to change the
topography of the problem without changing the mesh. it also allows the user to generate the mesh
without considering the topography and afterwards interpolate the elevation of the mesh vertices from
a Arc Info ASCII file. The Digital Terrain model may span the whole mesh domain, or just a part of it. The
file with the elevation of the vertices is loaded with the menu Iber_Tools > Edit Mesh > Move Nodes.

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3. COMPUTATION

3.1. Running a Computation

To launch a computation, all the input computation parameters must be set beforehand, using for this
purpose the tabs in the menu Data > Problem data. In this subsection the different options of the menu
are explained.

The computation is started with the menu Calculate. Using this menu it is possible to launch the
calculation directly (Calculate > Calculate) or to access to the calculation window (Calculate > Calculate
Window). This second option allows the user to keep a better track of the calculation process. It also
allows the user to read the file that shows the process state (Output View button), while the calculation
is still running.

The process information window can be opened, during the process or when it has finished, using the
menu Calculate > View Process Information. It is convenient to check this information in order to detect
possible error messages.

3.2. Calculation Parameters

The user can access the calculation parameters with the menu Data > Problem Data.

3.2.1. Time Parameters

Simulation: The user can choose to start a new computation or to continue with a previously execution
of the model.

Max Time increment [s]: Iber automatically adjusts the computational time step in order to satisfy the
Courant condition. Aditionally, it is possible for the user to set a maximum value for the computational
time step.

Initial Time [s]: Value of the time at the start of the calculation.

Max Simulation Time [s]: Value of the time at the end of the calculation,

Results Time Interval [s]: Time interval for writing results output.

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3.2.2. Calculation Parameters (General Tab)

In this tab some of the calculation and numerical scheme parameters are set.

Number of Threads: Iber can launch a parallel calculation with the number of processors desired by the
user. If the number processors indicated by the user is larger than the available number of processors in
the computer, Iber will use the maximum number of processors available.

Flux Limiter Function: Allows the user to choose one of the following numerical schemes: first order or
second order with one of the following limiter functions: Minmod, Superbee or Van Leer (the reader is
referred to the Hydraulic Reference Manual for further details).

CFL: Value of the Courant-Friedrichs-Levy coefficient, used to achieve a stable numerical scheme

Wet-Dry Limit [m]: threshold which is used in order to define if an element is wet or dry in the
hydrodynamic calculations.

Limit Dry Element Storage: if an element has a negative depth at any specific time step, Iber by default
considers it dry, and saves the value of the negative value. In order to become wet again, the element
must fill up this “negative depth” beforehand. It is possible to set the maximum value of this “negative
depth” or even limit it to zero, in order to improve the accuracy of the wet-dry front calculation. In that
case the computational time step will be reduced and therefore, the computational time will increase

Friction on walls: This option allows the user to consider in the computation the friction generated by
the wall boundaries. In the option is selected the user must introduce a roughness height.

3.2.3. Results Selection

In the results tab, the user can define the results he is interested in. Iber will only create result files for
the selected results.

NOTE 1: It will only be possible to post-process the unselected results if the simulation is run again.

3.2.4. Choosing the Turbulence Model

The turbulence tab allows the user to activate or deactivate the turbulence module, to choose a
turbulence model and to define its parameters. The details of each model are presented in the Hydraulic
Reference Manual.

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3.2.5. Selecting a Sediment Transport Model

The Sediments tab allows the user to active or deactivate the sediment bed load and suspended load
transport modules, and to define their parameters. The details of the sediment transport models are
presented in the Hydraulic Reference Manual.

It is possible to activate or deactivate the avalanche model for both, bed load and suspended load
models.

It is also possible to indicate an initial time to start the sediment transport calculations, which might be
different from the initial time of the hydrodynamic calculation. This allows the user to not consider
sediment transport until the velocity and water depth fields are stabilised.

3.2.6. Encroachment

In this tab, the encroachment module can be activated. To do this, it is necessary to previously define its
axis and distance, or its limiting polygon, with the menu Iber_Tools > encroachment.

If the first option is selected (indicating an axis line and a distance D), the extension of the flow will be
limited to the elements within a distance equal or smaller than D to the points that define the axis. If the
polygon option is chosen, the extension of the flow will be limited by the polygon.

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4. POST-PROCESS

Once the computation is over, or even during the simulation process, the post-process interface can be
accessed in order to visualize and analyze the results. Switching between pre-processing and post-
processing interfaces can be done in the menu Files > Post-process.

4.1. Results Visualization

Iber provides multiple options to visualize and analyze the results, personalize the colour maps, legends,
show label values, etc. An option to visualize the results is through the menu Window > View Results.
The window that opens enables the user to view the results which are available at each time step, to
visualize them as contour filled areas, smoothed contour filled areas or vectors.

In the same menu, using Window > Animate the output results can be visualized as a movie.

NOTE 1: in order to visualize only the results of the wet area, it is useful to limit the colour scale to the wet/dry limit (by default
it is 0.01m). This can be done with the menu Options > Contour > Min Options > Set Value, or as well with the button Set
Minimum Value at the geometry and visualization toolbar.

NOTE 2: if a background image is used (Iber is able to load geo-referenced jpg’s and tiff’s), while making a screen shot, save an
image, or saving a video of an animation it may happen that the background image does not appear. To solve this problem, use
the menu File > Page and Capture settings and uncheck White Background on image and White background on animations.

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4.2. Creating graphs

With the different buttons located in the results and visualization toolbar (which are called: Point
evolution, Line graph, Point graph and Border graph) it is possible to create useful graphs for the analysis
of results. The created graphs can be managed with the graph windows (Window > View graphs) and
they can be exported (File > Export > Graph) and opened in other software, like for example in Excel.

4.3. Exporting the results in Raster format

Iber allows exporting the results in Arc Info ASCII grid format using the menu Iber_Tools > Grid Results.
Only one result variable can be selected, and afterwards one time step and one cell size must be
introduced.

Iber will create a folder inside the project working folder (Grids of results folder), within which the
selected ASCII result files which are closest to the requested time will be saved.

4.4. Flow through a line

In order to compute the flow through a line, a text file must be created inside the project working
folder. This file must be named lines.dat and must have the following structure:

1st line: number of flow control lines

Following the first line, there must be as many pairs of lines as control lines:

1st line of pair: number of vertices of the line

2nd line of pair: list of the vertices (must be consecutive)

If the lines.dat file exists, upon executing the computations a new text file is created Qlines.rep in which
each row defines the flow through the lines at a specific time, the first column is the value of the time,
and the following columns are the flow through each line.

NOTE: The flow is positive when the discharge is passing the line leaving the lowest vertices on the right and the highest
vertices on the left, as indicated in the following figure:

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