Mathematical Modelling of One-Dimensional Overland Flow on a Porous Surface

Due to rapid urbanization, surface water drainage systems are designed to perform as natural drainage acting as water storage areas that allow infiltration and evaporation and to solve issues caused by traditional drainage system As there is an increase of attention on Sustainable Urban Drainage system (SuDs) to manage storm water, a simple yet efficient numerical model for flow over porous media is needed. The purpose of this research is to develop a numerical model for the simulation of flow over porous media. The model solves the unsteady one-dimensional Saint-Venant equation for the surface flow. The advection term in the momentum equation is solved using the Constrained Interpolation Profile (CIP) scheme which is of the third order accuracy. Averaged infiltration rate is estimated from the physical model experiment. The model is then used to simulate dam-break flow over porous bed and the result is verified against the experiment. The author found that the numerical model performed satisfactorily in terms of surface flow profile and the loss of total fluid volume through infiltration.