SPH modeling of tidal bore scenarios

The paper presented a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to study the three-dimensional (3D) tidal bore scenarios. The SPH method is a mesh-free particle modeling technique that can track the large deformation of free surfaces in a straightforward and accurate way. Two benchmark cases of the tidal bore propagation were computed and compared with the experimental results. The first one is related to the undular and breaking bores in a regular open channel, and the second one considers the undular bore passing through the contraction of bridge piers. Physical laboratory experiments have also been carried out to validate the numerical investigations. The comparisons of both the free surface profile and velocity field demonstrated that the SPH technique could provide a very promising tool to simulate tidal bore phenomena in engineering practice. The work is the first to systematically explore the potentials of mesh-free SPH modeling approach in predicting the tidal bore features under 3D flow conditions.