RiverFlow2D

Two-Dimensional
River Dynamics Model

TUTORIALS

December, 2017

Hydronia LLC
RiverFlow2D c
model and documentation produced by Hydronia, LLC, Pembroke Pines, FL. USA.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on part of
Hydronia, LLC. The software described in this document is furnished under a license agreement.
RiverFlow2D, OilFlow2D, RiverFlow2D, and RiverFlow2D GPU are copyrighted by Hydronia, LLC. 2011-2017.
SMS is trademark of Aquaveo, LLC.
All other products or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of Hydronia, LLC.
Last document modification date: September, 2017.
Technical Support: support@[Link]
Web site: [Link]
Contents

List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.1 Run SMS and Open RiverFlow2D Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Define Projections and Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Read in Initial Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.1 Read in Aerial Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.2 Read in Topographic Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3.3 Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 Define Model Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4.1 Define Coverage Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4.2 Create a Polygon to Define the Model Extent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4.3 Define Arc Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4.4 Redistribute Arcs Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4.5 Define Polygon Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.5 Setting RiverFlow2D Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.5.1 Feature Arc Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.6 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.7 Assign Manning’s n to Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.8 Assign RiverFlow2D Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.9 Running RiverFlow2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3 Visualizing RiverFlow2D Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 Scalar Dataset Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.1 Vector Dataset Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4 Simulating Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.1 Create a Bridge Geometry File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3 Enter the Bridge Polyline in the Default Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.4 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.5 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5 Simulating Culverts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.1.1 Create the Culvert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.2 Setup Control Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.3 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.4 Review Culvert Output Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
6 Simulating Levees using Weirs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.1 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
6.2 Import a Weir Breakline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.3 Convert the Weir Breakline to the Map Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

ii
 6.4 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.5 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7 Hydrologic Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
7.1 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.2 Create New Materials Corresponding to Rainfall and Infiltration Files . . . . . . . 44
7.3 Create the Rainfall and Evaporation Time-series Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.4 Create the Infiltration Parameters Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.5 Create the Rainfall/Evaporation Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.6 Create the Infiltration Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.7 Generate the Mesh and Copy Rainfall and Infiltration Files to the Mesh Folder . . 51
7.8 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.9 Visualizing Rainfall/Infiltration Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8 Setting up Initial Water Surface Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.1 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.2 Create New Initial Water Surface Elevation Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
8.3 Create the Initial Water Elevation Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.4 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.5 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9 Using Manning’s n Shapefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.2 Create a New Area Property Coverage for Manning’s n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
9.3 Read in the Shapefiles with Manning’s n Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
9.4 Map the Shapefile to the Manning’s n Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
9.5 Map the Manning’s n Coverage to the Existing Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9.6 Display the Manning’s n on the Existing Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
9.7 Enter n-values for Each Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
9.8 Save the Project and Check that Manning’s n have been Updated in the .2dm file . 67
10 Simulating Bed Load Sediment Transport with Limited Erosion Bed Areas . . . . . . . 69
10.1 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
10.2 Create New Maximum Erosion Depth Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
10.3 Create the Maximum Erosion Depth Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
10.4 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.5 Set the Global Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.6 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
10.7 Post-processing the Model Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
11 Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
11.1 Run SMS and Open the Existing Project File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
11.2 Set suspended sediment data in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program . . . . . . . 78
11.3 Add the Inflow Concentrations for each Fraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
11.4 Run RiverFlow2D from the Data Input Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
11.5 View RiverFlow2D Sediment Transport Model Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
12 Wind Driven Circulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
12.1 Open an Existing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
12.2 Create New Materials Corresponding to Wind Velocity Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
12.3 Create the Wind Velocity Time-series Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.4 Create the Wind Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12.5 Generate the Mesh and Copy Wind Velocity Files to the Mesh Folder . . . . . . . 89
12.6 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.7 Visualizing Wind Driven Circulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
13 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
13.1 Create a Breach Time Series Data File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
 13.2 Enter the Dam Polyline in the Default Map Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.3 Enter the initial water surface elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.4 Generate the Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
13.5 Running the Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
14 Post-processing Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.1 Creating an Observation Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.2 Cross Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
14.3 Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
15 Interpolation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
16 Using Huge Elevation Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
17 Converting .DXF Files to Scatter Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
18 Using HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
18.1 Read HEC-RAS Geometry File and Create the X Y Z and Polygon Files . . . . . . 117
19 Investigating the Mesh Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
20 Refining Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
20.1 Inserting Breaklines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
20.2 Arc Inserted on the Conceptual Model Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
21 Creating New Data Sets Using the Data Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
22 Exporting Shapefiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
List of Figures

2.1 Elevation data and background image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.2 Upstream boundary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.3 Downstream boundary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Model extent arcs defined. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5 Final Conceptual Model coverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.6 Upstream zoomed area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.7 Upstream node string. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.8 SMS XY Series Editor used to enter hydrograph boundary condition. . . . . . . . 12
2.9 Mesh with elevation contours. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.10 3D view of the mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.11 RiverFlow2D Data Input Program main window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.12 Model run report window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.1 Shaded contour plot for the Water Surface Elevation dataset. . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Velocity vectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Flow trace animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.1 Bridge front view. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4.2 Bridges panel in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.4 Bridge polyline in the Domain Outline layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.5 Feature arc attributes dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.6 Boundary conditions dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.7 Mesh aligned with bridge polyline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

5.1 Culvert scheme. Colors indicate the bed elevations where blue are the lowest areas
and red the highest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
5.2 Culvert tutorial. Initial window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.3 Save data to .2dm file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4 Control data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.5 Control data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.6 Graphic output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.7 Output file for Culvert A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

6.1 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6.2 Open File Format dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.3 File Import Wizard dialog step 1 of 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4 File Import Wizard dialog step 2 of 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.5 Scatter Breakline Options dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.6 Scatter Breaklines to Map conversion command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.7 Interpolate to Map Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

v
6.8 Map data showing domain boundary and internal breakline. . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.9 Feature Arc Attributes dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.10 Weir Boundary Conditions data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.11 Mesh aligned with weir polyline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

7.1 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

7.2 Materials Data Dialog to enter Rainfall/Evaporation and Infiltration data file names. 45
7.3 Rainfall intensity time series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.4 Rainfall/Evaporation polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
7.5 Polygons must be independent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.6 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.7 Assign Rainfall/Infiltration data file name to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
7.8 Select rainfall data file name for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.9 Infiltration polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
7.10 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.11 Assign infiltration data file name to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.12 Select infiltration data file name for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.13 Second infiltration polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.14 The project folder and the mesh share the same name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.15 Control Data panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
7.16 RiverFlow2D window at the end of the Rainfall/Infiltration tutorial run. . . . . . 53
7.17 Visualization of rainfall and infiltration results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

8.1 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

8.2 Materials Data Dialog to enter initial water elevation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.3 Initial water elevation polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
8.4 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.5 Polygons must be independent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.6 Assign a water elevation value to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
8.7 Select value for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
8.8 The project folder and the mesh share the same name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

9.1 RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

9.2 GIS to Feature Objects Wizard dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9.3 Mapping polygons to materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
9.4 Display of materials (Manning’s n). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
9.5 RiverFlow2D Material properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

10.1 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

10.2 Materials Data Dialog to enter maximum erosion depths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
10.3 Maximum erosion depth polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
10.4 Polygons must be independent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
10.5 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
10.6 Assign maximum erosion depth value to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.7 Select value for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.8 The project folder and the mesh share the same name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
10.9 Bed Load Sediment Transport tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
10.10 Erosion and Deposition Graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

11.1 RiverFlow2D Data Input Program with Sediment Transport Module activated. . . 78
11.2 RiverFlow2D Data Input Program with Suspended Sediment Data. . . . . . . . . 79
11.3 RiverFlow2D Data Input Program showing the Open Boundary Conditions Panel. 80
11.4 RiverFlow2D Data Input Program showing the Open Boundary Conditions Panel
with the completed concentration column. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
11.5 Sediment Transport Model Run Report Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
11.6 Sediment Transport Model run result visualization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

12.1 Existing RiverFlow2D project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

12.2 Materials Data Dialog to enter wind velocity data file names. . . . . . . . . . . . 87
12.3 Wind polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
12.4 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.5 Assign wind velocity data file name to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.6 Select wind velocity data file name for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
12.7 The project folder pointing to the mesh coverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
12.8 Control Data panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
12.9 RiverFlow2D window at the end of the Wind Simulation tutorial run. . . . . . . . 92
12.10 Visualization of wind simulation results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

13.1 Dam Breach Representation in RiverFlow2D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

13.2 Dam Breach panel in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
13.3 Dam polyline in the main map layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.4 Feature arc attributes dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
13.5 Dam breach boundary conditions dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.6 Polygon used to set the initial water elevations on the reservoir. . . . . . . . . . . 99
13.7 Materials Data Dialog to enter initial water elevation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
13.8 Convert vertices to nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
13.9 Assign a water elevation value to polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
13.10 Select value for polygon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
13.11 Mesh aligned with dam polyline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
13.12 Dam Breach Component. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
13.13 Dam Breach Control Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
13.14 Dam Breach Run Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

14.1 Cross sections arcs on the Observation coverage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

14.2 Profile plot of the geometry of the stream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

15.1 Interpolation Control dialog. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

18.1 Extract data from HEC-RAS command on Tool panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

18.2 Results of HEC-RAS data extraction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
18.3 Folder for HEC-RAS extracted files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
18.4 Confirmation of HEC-RAS extracted files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

19.1 Mesh Quality for Hoh River mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

19.2 Quality checks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

20.1 Creating the nodestring to split elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

20.2 Split elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
20.3 Coarse Elements near the boundary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
20.4 Feature Arc created near to the boundary to refine the mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . 125
20.5 Refine mesh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
20.6 Nodes passing through the Feature Arc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
21.1 Expression to calculate Froude number. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

22.1 Export shapefile command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

List of Tables

5.1 Culvert data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

18.1 Files generated by the HEC-RAS Extraction tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

ix
 Introduction
1
This document includes instructional material and tutorials to facilitate the application of the
RiverFlow2D model using SMS.
RiverFlow2D is a combined hydrologic and hydrodynamic, mobile bed and pollutant transport
finite-volume model for rivers, estuaries, coastal areas, and floodplains. It can simulate floods
and simulate inundation over complex terrain at high resolution and with remarkable stability,
accuracy and remarkable speed. The use of adaptive triangular-cell meshes enables the flow field
to be resolved around key features in difficult river environments.
RiverFlow2D user interface is based upon Surface-Water Modeling Solution (SMS) developed
by Aquaveo. This GIS-integrated software system provides interactive functions to generate and
refine the finite-volume flexible mesh, and uses familiar GIS objects to construct a high level
representation of the model. SMS facilitates assigning boundary conditions, roughness values, and
other parameters, allowing the user to efficiently manage the entire modeling process. SMS also
offers a comprehensive set of visualization tools including 3D rendering, animations and export
graphs to Google Earth.
RiverFlow2D computation engine uses an accurate, fast and stable finite-volume solution method
that eliminates the boundary and hot start difficulties of some two-dimensional flexible mesh mod-
els. RiverFlow2D also includes capability to handle hydraulic structures such as culverts, weirs,
bridges, and gates. The hydrologic capabilities include spatially distributed rainfall, evaporation
and infiltration. This current version also includes spatially distributed wind stress on the water
surface.

1
2
 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project
2
This tutorial provides a step-by-step guide to help you setting up a new RiverFlow2D project
from scratch. These guidelines include instructions for entering terrain elevation data, running
the RiverFlow2D model and visualizing the model results. As an example, a river simulation with
available bed elevation data is used. The boundary conditions include discharge inflow and water
surface elevation outflow.

The following steps are discussed:

1. Initial steps to create a new RiverFlow2D project

• Open SMS
• Open RiverFlow2D template
• Defining spatial projections and unit system
• Read in bed elevation data
• Adjust display options
2. Model Domain
• Define coverage type (Generic Model)
• Create boundary polygon
3. Define vertex spacing on arcs
4. Define polygon attributes
5. Enter boundary conditions
6. Generate mesh
7. Enter Manning’s n
8. Enter Control Data
9. Run RiverFlow2D

3
2.1 Run SMS and Open RiverFlow2D Template 4

10. Viewing RiverFlow2D Results

• Scalar Dataset Options
• Vector Dataset Options
11. Film Loop Visualization

All the data files required follow this tutorial are in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\Hoh

2.1 Run SMS and Open RiverFlow2D Template

To start using RiverFlow2D, double-click the SMS icon on your desktop .

Every time you start a new project, you must first import the RiverFlow2D template. This
template has been developed by Hydronia in collaboration with Aquaveo and integrates the
RiverFlow2D numerical engine into the SMS graphical user interface to pre-processing RiverFlow2D
model data and post process results. To import the template file do as follows:

1. Open the SMS Program.

2. On the File menu, click Open.
3. Select the file RiverFlow2D_Template.2dm in the folder for this tutorial and click the Open
button.

2.2 Define Projections and Units

In SMS you should define the coordinate projection for the site you are going to simulate. RiverFlow2D
can use either Metric or English units. Also, setting a projection allows you to take advantage of
all the geo-referencing tools in SMS for pre and post processing including exporting model results
to Google Earth. It is a requirement to use consistent units throughout your project.

To set the Projection:

1. On the Display menu, click Projection.

2. On the Horizontal frame select Global projection and click Set Projection....
3. Under Projection, select State Plane Coordinate System
4. Under Zone select Washington North (FIPS 4601)
5. Under Datum select NAD83
6. Under Planar Units select Feet (U.S. Survey).
7. Click OK.
8. Ensure that the Vertical units are set to U.S. Survey Feet.
5 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

9. Click the OK.

10. On the File menu, click Save As... to save the project.

11. Make sure the Save as type is Project Files (.sms) and enter the name [Link].

12. Click Save.

The horizontal and vertical units in RiverFlow2D need to be the same for a given project. If the
horizontal projection is set to meters, the vertical units should also be in meters and so on. You
could import in data with different units but you would need to convert them to the appropriate
units set in your projection before running RiverFlow2D.

2.3 Read in Initial Data

The next step is to read in data to start building the model site. For the Hoh River you have a
background image of the site and an elevation survey.

2.3.1 Read in Aerial Image

1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. Select the file [Link] in the Folder for this tutorial, and click Open.

3. Click Yes if prompted to build image pyramids. This option creates images at various
resolutions for clearer images as you zoom in and out of your simulation. It is especially
useful with very high resolution files to improve the refresh time within SMS without losing
image details.

2.3.2 Read in Topographic Data

1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. Select the file [Link] in the data files folder for this tutorial and click the Open
button.

3. Select Use Import Wizard and Click the OK to define the File Import Options for the text
(ASCII format) file.

4. The first step of the File Import Wizard gives you the option to specify delimiters and specify
a starting point for importing. The defaults are fine for this data set, so click on the Next
button.

5. Click Finish to import the elevations.

2.3.3 Display Options

To display the data according to the elevation values, adjust the display as follows.

1. On the Display menu, click Display Options.

2.4 Define Model Domain 6

2. Toggle off Points and select Boundary, then select Contours in the Scatter Display Tab.

3. Under the Contours tab, change the Contour Method to Color Fill and the Transparency to
30%.

4. Click OK to exit the Display Options dialog.

The resulting graph should appear in the display window similar to Figure 2.1 below.

Figure 2.1 – Elevation data and background image.

2.4 Define Model Domain

2.4.1 Define Coverage Type
A coverage in the Map Module is where different model features are represented using GIS objects
such as points, arcs and polygons. The shape of the modeling domain should be defined in a
Generic 2D Mesh coverage.

1. Right click on the default coverage under Map Data and select Type | Models | Generic 2D
Mesh.

2. Right click on the default coverage and select Rename.

3. Change the name of coverage to ‘Hoh River ’.

7 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

2.4.2 Create a Polygon to Define the Model Extent

1. Select the Create Feature Arc Tool .

2. Begin by creating a feature arc that spans across the northern most part of the channel as
shown in Figure 2.2. Click on the first vertex, move the cursor to the second vertex and
double-click to end the arc.

Figure 2.2 – Upstream boundary.

3. Similarly, create another arc at the southernmost part of the channel as shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3 – Downstream boundary.

4. Now create feature arcs connecting the two eastern nodes and two western nodes approxi-
mately following the floodplain boundary.
2.4 Define Model Domain 8

Figure 2.4 – Model extent arcs defined.

2.4.3 Define Arc Spacing

The different arcs in the Mesh Boundary coverage can be used to define the mesh cell sizes. There
are different tools that you can use in SMS to control cell sizes, but in this tutorial the spacing
between vertices will be used to define the cell size.

2.4.4 Redistribute Arcs Vertices

1. Select the arcs defining the East and West Banks of the reach as well as the Northern and
Southern cross section arcs. To select multiple arcs, first click the Select Feature Arc tool
and click on each arc while holding down the shift key.
2. Right-click inside the modeling area, and from the pop-up menu, click Redistribute Vertices...
3. In the Arc Redistribution section select Specified Spacing from the Specify drop down menu.
Set the Spacing to 40 ft.

4. Click OK to exit the Redistribute Vertices Dialog.

The resulting domain outline with redistributed vertices is shown in Figure 2.5.
9 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

Figure 2.5 – Final Conceptual Model coverage.

2.4.5 Define Polygon Attributes

[Link] Polygon Materials (Manning’s n)
RiverFlow2D allows you to vary the Manning’s n value spatially. However, in this tutorial we will
use a single Manning’s n to for the whole area. In SMS you enter the n values as Polygon Materials
as follows:

1. On the Feature Object menu, click Build Polygons to create polygons from the defined arcs.

With polygons now created you can assign Material Types to them. First, you must specify
what Material Types you wish to define and then assign the Material Type to the different
polygons.

2. On the Edit menu, click Material Data to bring up the Material Data dialog.

3. By default there is a material named ‘material 01’. Select ‘material 01 ’ and change the name
to FloodPlain.

4. You may define a material color and display pattern if you wish by selecting the Pattern
button to the right of the material. Clicking on the button will allow you to change the
fill pattern and selecting the dropdown arrow will allow you to change the color. For this
tutorial you will leave the defaults and select OK to exit.

Further in this tutorial you will assign a Manning’s n values to this material.

[Link] Other Polygon Attributes

To associate the polygons to bed elevations and mesh type, you can proceed as follows:
2.5 Setting RiverFlow2D Boundary Conditions 10

1. Select the Select Feature Polygon tool .

2. Click inside the polygon.
3. On the Feature Object menu, click Attributes... to bring up the 2D Mesh Multiple Polygon
Properties Dialog.
4. On the Mesh drop-down list, select Paving.
5. On the Bathymetry type drop-down list, select Scatter Set.
6. Click the Scatter Options... button. In the Scatter Set to Interpolate From section, select
the elevation dataset and leave all other options at the default values. These options control
what dataset will be used to interpolate elevations to cell nodes.
7. Click OK to exit the Interpolation dialog.
8. On the Material drop-down list, select the Floodplain.

9. Click OK to exit.

2.5 Setting RiverFlow2D Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions force the model with certain hydrodynamic conditions. For this model,
a water discharge boundary condition will be specified at the upstream boundary and uniform
outflow at the downstream end.

2.5.1 Feature Arc Attributes

RiverFlow2D Boundary conditions are assigned in the conceptual model by changing the feature
arc attributes of the Map module. This section will describe how to assign different boundary
conditions that will later be transferred automatically to the mesh.

[Link] Upstream Boundary Condition

1. Click Map Data in the Project Explorer to make the Map Module the active module.
2. Zoom in to the area shown in the Figure 2.6 near the upstream of the channel.
11 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

Figure 2.6 – Upstream zoomed area.

3. Using the Select Feature Arc Tool select the upstream cross section arc.

Figure 2.7 – Upstream node string.

2.6 Generate the Mesh 12

4. With the arc selected, on the Feature Objects menu, click Attributes...
5. Select Boundary Condition Option and click Options.
6. Select Exterior Boundary Condition and then select Discharge.
7. Click Define and use the XY Series Editor dialog to enter the hydrograph as shown:

Figure 2.8 – SMS XY Series Editor used to enter hydrograph boundary condition.

8. Click OK twice to exit.

[Link] Downstream Boundary Condition

The same process applies to the downstream boundary condition.

1. Select the downstream cross section arc.

2. With the arc selected, on the Feature Objects menu, click Attributes...
3. Select Boundary Condition Option and click Options.
4. Select Exterior Boundary Condition and then select Uniform Flow Outflow.
5. Enter Energy Slope So = 0.0025
6. Click OK twice to exit.

2.6 Generate the Mesh

With the meshing parameters set, the conceptual model is ready to be converted into to a
triangular-cell mesh for RiverFlow2D.

1. Select the ‘Hoh River ’ coverage under Map Data to activate it and to deselect any polygons
that might be selected.
2. On the Feature Objects menu, click Map → 2D Mesh menu item.
13 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

3. Click OK in the 2D Mesh Options dialog leaving the default settings.

A triangular-element mesh is created. The node elevations are interpolated values from the
scatter set survey and element material types are based on the materials set in the polygons
attributes. At this point, the background image, scatter set and map data can be turned off
in the project explorer to make it easier to work with the mesh. To do this:

4. In the Project Explorer, uncheck the box next to the [Link] image, the scatter set BedEle-
vations and the map coverage(s).

You may want to adjust the mesh display settings to see the elevations contours.

1. Click the newly created Mesh coverage under Mesh Data, e.g. Hoh River

2. On the Display menu, click Display Options.

3. Select 2D Mesh from the list on the left.

4. Toggle on Contours.

5. Under the Contours tab, select Color Fill on the Contour Method drop-down list.

6. Click OK to exit the Display Options dialog.

The resulting image should appear similar to Figure 2.9 below.

Figure 2.9 – Mesh with elevation contours.

In SMS you can also visualize the site in 3D.

7. On the Display menu, click Display Options.

2.7 Assign Manning’s n to Materials 14

8. Select General in the list on the left.

9. Toggle off Auto z-mag.

10. Change the Z magnification to 10 to improve the 3D visualization.

11. Click OK to exit the Display Options dialog.

12. Select the Rotate tool from the Static Toolbar.

13. Left click in the Graphics Window and drag to rotate the grid in 3D. You may also use the
mouse wheel to zoom in and out. See Figure 2.10.

14. You can go back to plan view by selecting the Plan View Icon in the Display Toolbar.

Figure 2.10 – 3D view of the mesh.

2.7 Assign Manning’s n to Materials

To assign the corresponding Manning’n n value to the Floodplain material defined before, do as
follows:

1. Click the Mesh Data coverage group.

2. On the RiverFlow2D menu, click Material Properties...

3. In the RiverFlow2D Material Properties dialog, select the material Floodplain.

15 2 Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project

4. Under the Control Data tab, enter a value of 0.035 for the Manning’s n.
5. Click OK.
6. Save the project.
The material properties have now been properly defined.

The material zones can be displayed by opening the Display Options dialog and turning on the
Materials check box.

2.8 Assign RiverFlow2D Parameters

Now that you have generated the unstructured mesh you need to set up RiverFlow2D run control
data and other non-spatial model parameters.
1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.
2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Run RiverFlow2D
This will bring up the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program in which you can set all the run
control parameters for RiverFlow2D.

Figure 2.11 – RiverFlow2D Data Input Program main window.

3. For this tutorial accept the default values as shown in the Control Data panel.

2.9 Running RiverFlow2D

To run the model, click the Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the Data Input
Program.
2.9 Running RiverFlow2D 16

The following window will appear indicating that the model has started running. The window
also reports the simulation time, volume conservation error, total inflow and outflow discharge,
and other parameters as the run progresses.

Figure 2.12 – Model run report window.

This completes the Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project tutorial. You may want to follow
the next tutorial to learn how to visualize the RiverFlow2D results you have just generated.
 Visualizing RiverFlow2D Results
3
This tutorial shows how to use several SMS tools to visualize RiverFlow2D results.

For this tutorial we will assume you have successfully completed the previous tutorial.

To visualize RiverFlow2D results, first you need to read in the XMDF output that RiverFlow2D
has generated.

1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. Find the Hoh River_results1.hdf5 file located in the folder where your project is saved
and select the file. This folder will have the same name as the mesh (e.g. Hoh River) and
will be three directory levels below the one containing the .sms file.

3. Click the Open button.

Once the RiverFlow2D output file has been imported as Mesh Dataset you will have many options
to view the data. The Project Explorer may be used to select the desired Scalar and Vector output
datasets. Scalar data sets are identified by the scalar icon and the vector datasets have the vector
icon identifying them.

3.1 Scalar Dataset Options

A good way to view the output is to edit the contour display options. To change the contour
properties:

1. Activate the Water Surface Elevation output scalar dataset by selecting it in the Project
Explorer.

2. Select the Display Options macro in the Display Toolbar.

17
3.1 Scalar Dataset Options 18

3. In the 2D Mesh tab, click the All off button to turn off current display options.
4. Turn on the Contours, and Mesh boundary.
5. Under the Contours tab, change the Contour Method to Color Fill.
6. For the Number of contours, enter 25.
7. Click OK to exit the dialog box
8. Select Time step ‘0 [Link]’.

SMS will redraw the screen similar to one shown below.

Figure 3.1 – Shaded contour plot for the Water Surface Elevation dataset.

3.1.1 Vector Dataset Options

You can display velocity vectors in this way:

1. Activate the Velocity output vector dataset by selecting Velocity (ft) in the Project Explorer.
2. Open the Display Options. In the 2D Mesh options turn on the Vectors.
19 3 Visualizing RiverFlow2D Results

3. Go to the Vectors tab and under Vector Display Placement and Filter, change the Display
to “at each node”.

4. Enter 5 in the Offset and click the OK button. The Z-offset raises the origin of the vectors
so that they are completely visible.

Figure 3.2 – Velocity vectors.

[Link] Film Loop Visualization

In addition to snapshots for a particular time, SMS enables the you to generate and save animations
using the Film Loop. To create a film loop of the RiverFlow2D analysis:

1. On the Data menu, click Film Loop...

2. In the Film Loop Setup dialog, select the Flow Trace Type. Click the Next > button.
3.1 Scalar Dataset Options 20

Figure 3.3 – Flow trace animation.

3. Click the Next > button twice, then the Finish button.
SMS now starts constructing the film loop adding one frame at a time. Once the last frame has
been added to the loop, an AVI Application will open and the animation will start automatically.
Click the Close button when finished. The film loop has been saved as [Link].
You may continue to explore other film loop features if desired. We suggest trying the Flow
Trace option that will generate animations similar to the one depicted in Figure 3.3 and the Create
Google Earth KMZ File to view results in the Google Earth Environment.
 Simulating Bridges
4
This tutorial illustrates how to incorporate a bridge to an existing RiverFlow2D project using the
Bridges Component. The procedure involves the following steps:

1. Create the bridge geometry data.

2. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

3. Enter the bridge polyline.

4. Enter bridge data.
5. Generate the mesh.
6. Run the model.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\BridgesTutorial

4.1 Create a Bridge Geometry File

Figure 4.1 shows the front view of the bridge we want to incorporate to the model. The data is
also in the [Link] file.

21
4.1 Create a Bridge Geometry File 22

Figure 4.1 – Bridge front view.

It represents the cross section of a bridge with only one central pier, although this is just for
the purpose of illustrating the Bridges component in this tutorial since the actual bridge in this
location has about 12 sets of piers. This geometry is represented in the RiverFlow2D model using
the bridge geometry file shown below, where the header row are presented only to describe the
parameters but they should not be included in the actual data:

You may use the Bridges panel in RiverFlow2D Data Input Program to create a bridge geometry
file (see Figure 4.2). The program lets you enter data in tabular form and view a graph of the
bridge geometry. You may also manipulate the graphical lines, which will make that the tabular
data be modified.
23 4 Simulating Bridges

Figure 4.2 – Bridges panel in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program.

An alternative way to create the bridge geometry file is to use a spreadsheet. In the example
folder there is a MS-Excel sheet ([Link]) that allows editing and plotting
bridge geometry files.

Before running the model you will need to manually copy the bridge geometry file to your mesh
folder.

4.2 Open an Existing Project

Use the File | Open command on the SMS program to load the existing project: BridgeTutorial.
sms. This project contains a Domain Outline, Bed Elevation data, inflow on the upper right and
outflow on the lower left.
The boundary conditions are a hydrograph with a peak discharge of 220,000 cfs and Free outflow
downstream condition.

4.3 Enter the Bridge Polyline in the Default Coverage

This step ensures that the mesh will conform to the bridge alignment, so that there will be nodes
generated along the bridge. In this case we will enter the bridge is a straight line approximately
1740 ft long as follows:

1. Click on the default coverage.

2. Using the Create Feature Arc draw the bridge polyline on the bridge location.
3. Select the polyline using the Select Feature Arc and redistribute the vertices so that the
spacing is 200 ft. You should see the bridge polyline as shown in Figure 4.4.
24 4 Simulating Bridges

Figure 4.3 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

Figure 4.4 – Bridge polyline in the Domain Outline layer.

25 4 Simulating Bridges

4. Now select the polyline again using the Select Feature Arc.
5. Right click and select Attributes...

Figure 4.5 – Feature arc attributes dialog.

6. Select Boundary conditions and click Options.

7. Select Bridge and enter BRIDGE1 as BridgeID and [Link] for Bridge File
Name as shown in Figure 4.6 and click OK.

Figure 4.6 – Boundary conditions dialog.

4.4 Generate the Mesh

To finalize the spatial data preparation, use the Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to
generate the mesh. Check that the resulting mesh is perfectly aligned with the bridge as shown in
Figure 4.7.
4.5 Running the Model 26

Figure 4.7 – Mesh aligned with bridge polyline.

4.5 Running the Model

Now that you have generated the unstructured mesh you need to set up RiverFlow2D run control
data and other non-spatial model parameters.

Make sure to copy the [Link] file to your mesh folder before running the model.

1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.
2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Run RiverFlow2D
This will bring up the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program in which you can set all the run
control parameters for RiverFlow2D.
3. Make sure that the Bridges component is selected n the Control Data panel:
Leave all other parameters at their default values.

To run the model, click Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the Data Input
Program. A window will appear indicating that the model has started running. The window also
reports the simulation time, volume conservation error, total inflow and outflow discharge, and
other parameters as the run progresses.
 Simulating Culverts
5
This tutorial demonstrates how to incorporate culverts in a RiverFlow2D two-dimensional mesh.
The problem consists of a natural channel crossed by a road embankment. A culvert structure is to
be used to connect the upstream and downstream parts of the channel divided by the embankment
as shown in the following figure:

Figure 5.1 – Culvert scheme. Colors indicate the bed elevations where blue are the lowest areas and
red the highest.

27
5.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project 28

The water enters from upstream with a constant discharge of 1000 cfs, and outflows downstream
along the indicated section. The area is initially dry.
The culvert will have a circular cross section with other characteristics summarized in Table 5.1
(CulvertA). CulvertB data is provided in case that you wanted to extend the tutorial adding a
second culvert to the project.

Table 5.1 – Culvert data.

PARAMETER DESCRIPTION CulvertA CulvertB
Nb Number of identical barrels 1 1
Ke Entrance Loss Coefficient 0.5 0.7
n Manning’s n Coefficient 0.014 0.015
Kp Inlet Control Coefficient 0.3 0.4
M Inlet Control Coefficient 2 2
Cp Inlet Control Coefficient 1.28 1.1
Y Inlet Control Coefficient 0.67 0.69
m Inlet form coefficient -0.5 -0.5
Dc Diameter (ft) 3.0 2.0
– Inlet Invert Elevation -9999.0 -9999.0
– Outlet Invert Elevation -9999.0 -9999.0

The procedure to integrate this culvert in a RiverFlow2D simulation involves the following steps:

1. Open an existing RiverFlow2D Project.

2. Create new culvert inlet and outlet nodes in the Map Coverage.
3. Generate the mesh to ensure that the culvert are properly indentified.
4. Export the data and setup model parameters.

5. Run the model.

6. Review culvert output files.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\Culverts

5.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project

Run SMS and using the Open command on the File menu, open the [Link] file as
shown in the following figure:
29 5 Simulating Culverts

Figure 5.2 – Culvert tutorial. Initial window.

The embankment has been included in the bed elevation scatter set and is visible in the middle
of the area. The project also includes an upstream discharge boundary condition and uniform flow
downstream.

5.1.1 Create the Culvert

The culvert data is entered in the SMS conceptual model coverage:

1. Click on the Create Feature Point icon and click on the location where you want to enter
the inlet point.

2. Click on the location where you want to enter the outlet point

3. Now click on the Select Feature Point icon

4. Click and then right-click on the point entered in the previous step.

5. On the Feature Objects menu, click Node Attributes...

6. Select Elem BC and click Options... button. Unselect Create mesh node at the location:
5.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project 30

7. Click Options...

8. Select Culvert Inlet, enter the Culvert ID name (CulvertA) and enter the culvert data as
shown

9. Click OK two times to close the dialogs

10. Go back to the location where you entered the Culvert Outlet Element, click and then right-
click on it, and on the Feature Objects menu, click Node Attributes...

11. Select Elem BC and click Options... button. Unselect Create mesh node at the location and
click Options... as you did with the inlet node.

12. Select Culvert Inlet, and enter the Culvert Inlet Name exactly the same as the inlet name:
CulvertA
31 5 Simulating Culverts

Note that which point you select as inlet and which as outlet is irrelevant. The model will
dynamically make this assignment during computation, based on the actual flow direction at any
given time.

Repeat the culvert creation process as above for a second culvert (CulvertB) if desired.

To save the data to the project (.2dm file), on the File menu, click Save Project.

Figure 5.3 – Save data to .2dm file.

It is always recommended to re-generate the mesh after inputting the culverts. This will ensure
that SMS will be correctly integrate the culvert data to the mesh.

5.2 Setup Control Parameters

With the Mesh layer active, select RiverFlow2D menu and click on Global Parameters. Then select
the Control Data tab:
5.3 Running the Model 32

Figure 5.4 – Control data.

Now select the Components Controls tab and then the Culverts component :

Figure 5.5 – Control data.

5.3 Running the Model

To run the model, click on the Run RiverFlow2D. On the Data Input program, click the again Run
RiverFlow2D and follow screen instructions. During model run, you will see the graphic output
screen reporting on different parameters of the run:
33 5 Simulating Culverts

Figure 5.6 – Graphic output.

If after the first run you want to change any culvert parameter, it is better to do so in the
Data Input Program and not in the SMS dialogs. The data in SMS dialogs will be erased every
time you regenerate the mesh, while you will be always be able to keep the non-spatial data (e.g.
culvert parameters) using the Data Input Program.

5.4 Review Culvert Output Files

For each culvert, RiverFlow2D creates an output file named: CULVERT_culvertID.OUT, where
culvertID is the text ID entered when we created to the culverts. Each file contains the time series
of discharge through the culvert, and water surface elevations at the inlet and outlet locations. For
this tutorial you will fine one file named CULVERT_CulvertA.OUT a shown in the following figure.
34 5 Simulating Culverts

Figure 5.7 – Output file for Culvert A.

 Simulating Levees using Weirs
6
This tutorial illustrates how to incorporate levee to an existing RiverFlow2D project using the
Weirs Component. The are several advantages in using this component to simulate levees, walls,
and sound walls:

• You do not need to refine the mesh to account for the high elevations along the levee/wall.
• Can account for vertical walls.
• More accurate computations of the discharge over the structure in case of flow overtopping.

The procedure to use this component involves the following steps:

1. Open a RiverFlow2D project.

2. Import a weir breakline containing elevations.
3. Convert weir breakline to the map coverage.
4. Interpolate the weir elevations.
5. Generate the mesh.
6. Run the model.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\WeirsTutorial

6.1 Open an Existing Project

On the File menu, click Open to load [Link]. This project contains a polygon
that defines the model domain outline, bed elevation data, inflow discharge boundary condition
upstream on the upper right side and outflow on the lower left.

35
6.2 Import a Weir Breakline 36

Figure 6.1 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

The inflow boundary conditions is a hydrograph reaching 200,000 cfs upstream and the outflow
condition is set to Uniform Flow Outflow downstream.

6.2 Import a Weir Breakline

We want to use surveyed elevations along a polyline to assign them as weir crest elevations of a
hypothetical levee that will be constructed on the right bank of the river.
You can import breaklines in SMS along with scatter data using the File Import Wizard. In
order to import breaklines, the tabular file must be prepared in one of two supported formats. The
one used in this tutorial is defined by its vertices (X, Y, Z) where Z represent the crest elevations.
The breakline file is LeveeRB_Breakline.txt and its content is as follows:

xcoord ycoord zcoord name

6219162.97 1928648.44 155.51 leveeRB
6218337.23 1927885.62 151.14 leveeRB
6217873.24 1927256.48 150.06 leveeRB
6217495.76 1926454.34 150.69 leveeRB
6216764.39 1925471.31 156.16 leveeRB
6215962.25 1924787.13 155.34 leveeRB
6215065.73 1924299.55 154.52 leveeRB
6213972.61 1923749.06 155.84 leveeRB

An additional column of data defines the breakline name that is leveeRB in this example. In
the import wizard, this column should be mapped as Breakline as explained below.
37 6 Simulating Levees using Weirs

1. On File menu, click Open and select LeveeRB_Breakline.txt.

2. In the Open File Format dialog select Use Import Wizard and click OK.

Figure 6.2 – Open File Format dialog.

3. In the File Import Wizard dialog select Space as shown and click Next.

Figure 6.3 – File Import Wizard dialog step 1 of 2.

4. Select Breakline in the 4th column drop down list as shown in Figure 6.4 and Select Names
as Breakline Delimiters as in Figure 6.5.

Figure 6.4 – File Import Wizard dialog step 2 of 2.

6.3 Convert the Weir Breakline to the Map Coverage 38

Figure 6.5 – Scatter Breakline Options dialog.

The breakline will be imported and a new Levee RB Breakline scatter dataset will be created.

6.3 Convert the Weir Breakline to the Map Coverage

This step is necessary to ensure that the mesh will conform to the weir alignment, in such a way
that there will be nodes along the breakline.

1. To transfer the imported breakline to the Map Coverage, right-click on the LeveeRB Breakline
scatter,

2. Then click on Convert... and click on Scatter Breaklines → Map as shown in Figure 6.6.

Figure 6.6 – Scatter Breaklines to Map conversion command.

3. To complete transferring the weir crest elevations, in the Scatter Menu click Interpolate to
Map:
39 6 Simulating Levees using Weirs

Figure 6.7 – Interpolate to Map Command.

4. Now select the Mesh1 coverage under Map Data, and using the Select Feature Arc, first click
and then then right-click on the weir breakline.

5. Click on Redistribute vertices... on the pop-up menu, and in the dialog enter a node spacing
of 200 ft. You should see the weir polyline as shown in Figure 6.8.

Figure 6.8 – Map data showing domain boundary and internal breakline.

6. Now right-click again on the weir breakline and in the pop-up menu, click Attributes. Then
select Boundary conditions and click Options...
6.4 Generate the Mesh 40

Figure 6.9 – Feature Arc Attributes dialog.

7. In the Nodestring Boundary Conditions dialog select Weir and enter the weir name: LeveeRB
and Weir Coefficient 3.2 as shown in Figure 6.10. The Crest Elevation parameter is not used
since the elevations will be taken from the imported breakline crest elevations.

Figure 6.10 – Weir Boundary Conditions data.

6.4 Generate the Mesh

To finalize the spatial data preparation, click Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to
generate the mesh. Check that the resulting mesh is perfectly aligned with the weir:
41 6 Simulating Levees using Weirs

Figure 6.11 – Mesh aligned with weir polyline.

6.5 Running the Model

To run the model do as follows:

1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.

2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Run RiverFlow2D

This will bring up the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program in which you can set all the run
control parameters for RiverFlow2D.
3. Select the Weirs component
Leave all other parameters at their default
4. Finally, click the Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the Data Input Program.
When the model finishes the execution, you can use the visualization tools to explore results.
6.5 Running the Model 42
 Hydrologic Simulations
7
The conceptual model of a hydrologic simulation with RiverFlow2D requires a series of non-
overlapping polygons that organize the input rainfall/evaporation and infiltration data to the
model. Only areas covered by polygons will receive rainfall or consider infiltration depending on
the case. Each Rainfall/Evaporation polygon should be associated with a file containing a rainfall
and evaporation time-series file. Similarly, each Infiltration polygon should correspond with a file
containing the infiltration calculation method and its parameters for the polygon. The user will
need to generate these rainfall and infiltration data files associated with each polygon, and copy
them to the project folder, prior to running the model.

This tutorial illustrates how to perform a hydrologic simulation accounting for rainfall, evapo-
ration and infiltration. The procedure includes the following steps:

1. Create new Materials corresponding to rainfall and infiltration files.

2. Create the rainfall and evaporation time-series data files.

3. Create the infiltration data files.

4. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

5. Create RainEvap coverage and the rainfall/evaporation polygons.

6. Create the Infiltration coverage and the infiltration polygons.

7. Generate the mesh.

8. Run the model.

9. Visualize model results.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\RainfallInfiltrationTutorial

43
7.1 Open an Existing Project 44

7.1 Open an Existing Project

On the File menu, click Open to open the existing project: RI_TUT2.sms.

Figure 7.1 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

This project already contains a terrain elevation dataset, a model domain extent polygon, out-
flow boundary conditions, and empty rainfall/evaporation (RainEvap) and infiltration (Infiltration)
area coverages.

7.2 Create New Materials Corresponding to Rainfall

and Infiltration Files
1. Use the Material Data command in the Edit menu to create new Material Data entries. In
the RiverFlow2D SMS GUI the Rainfall/Evaporation and Infiltration data file names will
correspond to the material names entered in the Materials Data Dialog.

2. To add new data file names, use the New button, and enter Material names that will cor-
respond with the rainfall/evaporation and infiltration data files that you want to associate
with each polygon. In this tutorial we will enter [Link], [Link] and
[Link] as shown:
45 7 Hydrologic Simulations

Figure 7.2 – Materials Data Dialog to enter Rainfall/Evaporation and Infiltration data file names.

7.3 Create the Rainfall and Evaporation Time-series

Data File
To run a hydrologic simulation with RiverFlow2D you will create polygons over which the rain-
fall/evaporation data will be applied, but first you need to create the rainfall and evaporation time
series ASCII text files that will be associated with each polygon. These files can be created with
any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. The rainfall/evaporation file has the following format:

Line 1: Number of points in the time series of rainfall and evaporation.

NPRE

NPRE lines containing:

TIME Rainfall (mm/h or in/h) Evaporation (mm/h or in/h)

The following table is an excerpt of the [Link] file that is included in the folder for
this tutorial. In this example, the evaporation is assumed to be 0 for all times.
Figure 7.3 depicts the graphical representation of the rainfall time series in [Link] file.
46 7 Hydrologic Simulations

49
0.00 0.00 0.00
0.50 1.53 0.00
1.00 1.53 0.00
1.50 1.53 0.00
2.00 1.53 0.00
2.50 1.84 0.00
3.00 1.84 0.00
...
21.50 1.53 0.00
22.00 1.84 0.00
22.50 1.53 0.00
23.00 1.53 0.00
23.50 1.84 0.00
24.00 1.53 0.00

Figure 7.3 – Rainfall intensity time series.

47 7 Hydrologic Simulations

7.4 Create the Infiltration Parameters Data File

To account for infiltration you will create polygons where you specify the infiltration calculation
method and its corresponding data. Each polygon may use a different method with its associated
parameters. You will need to create the infiltration ASCII text files for each polygon. These files
can be created with any text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. The infiltration file is described
in detail in the RiverFlow2D Reference Manual. For this tutorial we will use two infiltration files,
[Link] and [Link], provided in the folder for this tutorial.

7.5 Create the Rainfall/Evaporation Polygons

We will create the rainfall/evaporation polygons in the RainEvap area coverage.

Note that the RainEvap coverage name should not be changed. If you use a different name for
this coverage, the model will not be able recognize the rainfall/evaporation polygons.

1. First click on the on the RainEvap coverage to make sure it is the active layer.

2. Using the Create Feature Arc tool, draw a polygon similar to the one shown in Figure 7.4.

Figure 7.4 – Rainfall/Evaporation polygon.

If you are creating more than one polygon, make sure that they do not have common edges.
If you need to have side-by-side polygons, create each one independently in such a way that
even though they may have overlapping edges, the polygons are unique (see Figure 7.5).
7.5 Create the Rainfall/Evaporation Polygons 48

Figure 7.5 – Polygons must be independent.

3. On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.

To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this, click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu,
click Select All, then right-click on the plot window. On the pop-up menu, click Convert to
Nodes to convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 7.6 – Convert vertices to nodes.

4. Now, click the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click.
On the pop-up menu, click Attributes:

Figure 7.7 – Assign Rainfall/Infiltration data file name to polygon.

5. In the dialog select Material, [Link] from the drop-down material list, and click
OK:
49 7 Hydrologic Simulations

Figure 7.8 – Select rainfall data file name for polygon.

This completes the creation of rainfall/evaporation polygons.

7.6 Create the Infiltration Polygons

We will now create the infiltration polygons in the Infiltration area coverage.

Note that the coverage name: Infiltration, should not be changed. If you use a different name for
this coverage, the model will not be able recognize the infiltration polygons.

1. To create the polygons, first click on the on the Infiltration coverage to make sure it is the
active layer.

2. Then, using the Create Feature Arc, draw a polygon as shown:

Figure 7.9 – Infiltration polygon.

3. On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.
7.6 Create the Infiltration Polygons 50

To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this,

4. Click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu.

5. Click Select All, then right-click on the plot window and on the pop-up menu.

6. Click Convert to Nodes to convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 7.10 – Convert vertices to nodes.

7. Use the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click. On
the pop-up menu, click Attributes:

Figure 7.11 – Assign infiltration data file name to polygon.

8. In the dialog select Material, [Link] from the drop-down material list, and
click OK:

Figure 7.12 – Select infiltration data file name for polygon.

9. Now click on the Infiltration coverage again and using the Create Feature Arc draw a second
polygon as shown:
51 7 Hydrologic Simulations

Figure 7.13 – Second infiltration polygon.

Make sure that the polygons you draw do not overlap. Overlapping polygons create in-
tersected areas that will confuse the algorithm used to define the infiltration and rain-
fall/evaporation areas.

10. Repeat the procedure as explained before to assign the [Link] to the second
polygon.
This completes the creation of the infiltration polygons.

7.7 Generate the Mesh and Copy Rainfall and

Infiltration Files to the Mesh Folder
To finalize the spatial data preparation, click on the Mesh coverage under Map Data, and use the
Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to generate the mesh. Then copy [Link],
[Link] and [Link] to the mesh folder. In this tutorial this folder should
be
...\ExampleProjects\RainfallInfiltrationTutorial\RI TUT2\RiverFlow2D\Mesh.

Note that when SMS creates a mesh it assigns to it a name under the Mesh data coverage group
as shown in Figure 10.8. The project folder always has the same name as the mesh name.

7.8 Running the Model

1. Click on the Mesh Data Coverage,
7.8 Running the Model 52

Figure 7.14 – The project folder and the mesh share the same name.

2. Click Run RiverFlow2D on the RiverFlow2D menu. The Data Input Program will appear.
3. Select Rainfall and Infiltration on the Control Data panel, set the simulation time to 12 hours
as shown in Figure 7.15.
4. Save the project.

Figure 7.15 – Control Data panel.

5. Finally, click the Run RiverFlow2D button. Figure 7.16 shows the dynamic window at the
end of the run.
53 7 Hydrologic Simulations

Figure 7.16 – RiverFlow2D window at the end of the Rainfall/Infiltration tutorial run.

6. Click Stop and close the window using the Close Window icon on the upper right of the
window.

7.9 Visualizing Rainfall/Infiltration Results

When the model completes the execution and has generated all of result files, you can use SMS
visualization tools to explore results. This is accomplished by opening the Mesh_RESULTS.HDF5 file
that the model creates in the project folder. In addition to the usual plots (depths, velocities, etc.)
in this case the graphic options include the Accumulated Infiltration which is the total accumulated
infiltration volume into the soil and the Accumulated Rainfall that represents the total volume
from precipitation at each cell (see Figure 7.17).
54 7 Hydrologic Simulations

Figure 7.17 – Visualization of rainfall and infiltration results.

 Setting up Initial Water Surface Elevations
8
For applications where the initial water surface elevation needs to be specified over some areas
such as reservoirs, and other water bodies you can define set the initial water elevation over any
polygon.
This tutorial illustrates how to perform a simulation with an area where the water elevation is
set to a specified value. The procedure includes the following steps:

1. Create new values (Materials) corresponding to the initial water elevations.

2. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

3. Create a InitialConditions coverage and the polygons defining the area.
4. Generate the mesh.

5. Run the model.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\IntialConditionTutorial

8.1 Open an Existing Project

On the File menu, click Open to open the existing project: [Link].

55
8.2 Create New Initial Water Surface Elevation Value 56

Figure 8.1 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

This project already contains a terrain elevation dataset, a model domain extent polygon,
outflow boundary conditions, and empty InitialConditions coverage.
If you are starting a new project that does not include the Initial Condition Coverage you may
create one as follows:

1. Right-click on Map Data and click on New Coverage

2. On the dialog select Area Property

3. Enter InitialConditions as Coverage Name

4. Click OK

8.2 Create New Initial Water Surface Elevation Value

Use the Material Data Command in the Edit menu to create new Material Data entries with
numeric values that will correspond with the initial water elevation that you want to associate
with each polygons. To add new values, use the New button, and enter Material values. In this
case we will enter 60.0:
57 8 Setting up Initial Water Surface Elevations

Figure 8.2 – Materials Data Dialog to enter initial water elevation.

8.3 Create the Initial Water Elevation Polygon

We will create an initial water elevation polygon in the InitialConditions area coverage.

Note that the InitialConditions coverage name should not be changed. If you use a different name
for this coverage, the model will not be able recognize the polygons.

To create the polygon, first click on the on the InitialConditions coverage to make sure it is
the active layer, and using the Create Feature Arc tool, draw a polygon as shown:

Figure 8.3 – Initial water elevation polygon.

On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.

To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this, click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu, click
8.3 Create the Initial Water Elevation Polygon 58

Select All, then right-click on the plot window and on the pop-up menu, click Convert to Nodes to
convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 8.4 – Convert vertices to nodes.

If you are entering more than one initial conditions polygon, make sure that they do not have
common edges. If you need to have side-by-side polygons, create each one independently in such a
way that even though they may have overlapping edges, the polygons are unique (see Figure 8.5).

Figure 8.5 – Polygons must be independent.

Use the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click. On the
pop-up menu, click Attributes:

Figure 8.6 – Assign a water elevation value to polygon.

In the dialog select Material, 60 from the drop-down material list, and click OK:
59 8 Setting up Initial Water Surface Elevations

Figure 8.7 – Select value for polygon.

This completes the creation of the water elevation polygons.

8.4 Generate the Mesh

To finalize the spatial data preparation, click on the Mesh coverage under Map Data, and use the
Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to generate the mesh.

Figure 8.8 – The project folder and the mesh share the same name.

8.5 Running the Model

To run the model do as follows:

1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.
2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Run RiverFlow2D
This will bring up the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program in which you can set all the run
control parameters for RiverFlow2D.
3. Set the simulation time to 2 hours
4. Select the Read initial water elevations from .FED file in the Initial conditions frame
Leave all other parameters at their default values.

Finally, click the Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the Data Input Program.
When the model finishes the execution, you can use the visualization tools to explore results.

This concludes the Setting Initial Water Surface Elevations Condition tutorial.
8.5 Running the Model 60
 Using Manning’s n Shapefiles
9
This tutorial illustrates how to use Manning’s n shapefiles to assign n values to an existing
RiverFlow2D project. The procedure includes the following steps:

1. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

2. Create a new Area Property coverage for Manning’s n.

3. Read in the shapefiles with Manning’s n polygons.

4. Map the shapefile to the Manning’s n coverage.

5. Map the Manning’s n coverage to the existing mesh.

6. Display the Manning’s n on the existing mesh.

7. Enter n-values for each material.

8. Save the project and check that Manning’s n have been updated in the .2dm file.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\ManningsNShapefileTutorial

Files for a completed tutorial are also included in the following folder:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\ManningsNShapefileTutorialFinal

9.1 Open an Existing RiverFlow2D Project

In this example we will use the RiverFlow2D project included in the ManningsNShapefileTutorial
folder.

61
9.2 Create a New Area Property Coverage for Manning’s n 62

1. Open SMS
2. On the File menu, click Open. Find the file [Link] in the data files folder
for this tutorial. Select Open.

Figure 9.1 – RiverFlow2D project.

9.2 Create a New Area Property Coverage for

Manning’s n
In order to incorporate data into the RiverFlow2D model, the GIS data needs to be converted
into native SMS data. Generally, GIS data is converted into Map coverages which are similar to
GIS layers. Data converted from GIS layers into Map coverages are put into the active coverage.
Therefore, it is important to have the type of coverage you need and make it active before the
conversion process.
We will convert the Manning’s n data into an area property coverage with designated materials
(n-values).
If in you project there is a ManningsN coverage, you do not need to create a new one. Otherwise,
do as follows:
1. Right-click on the Map data layer group and select New Coverage.
2. In the New Coverage dialog select Area Property and enter the Coverage name: ManningsN.
Click OK.

9.3 Read in the Shapefiles with Manning’s n Polygons

1. On the File menu, click Open. Find the file SaltRiver_ManningsN.shp in the data files
folder for this tutorial. Select Open. There are three files with this name. The shapefile with
63 9 Using Manning’s n Shapefiles

extension .shp is the one that should be read in.

9.4 Map the Shapefile to the Manning’s n Coverage

1. In the GIS module (shapefile) and with ManningsN coverage active, click Mapping and then
Shapes → Feature Objects. Click Yes to use all the shapes in the visible shapefiles for
mapping.

If you have selected any number of shapes in the shapefile, SMS will not prompt you to use
all shapes within visible shapefiles. Instead, it will only convert those selected shapes into
feature objects. This is useful if you only plan on using a few selected shapes from a large
shapefile.
9.5 Map the Manning’s n Coverage to the Existing Mesh 64

Figure 9.2 – GIS to Feature Objects Wizard dialog.

2. Select the ManningsN coverage and click Next to bring up the GIS Feature Objects Wizard
table.

Figure 9.3 – Mapping polygons to materials.

3. In the Description column N Value, select Material from the Mapping drop-down list. SMS
will assign the polygon description to each polygon mapped to the active coverage.
4. Click Next then Finish.

9.5 Map the Manning’s n Coverage to the Existing

Mesh
To assign the Manning’s n to elements in a mesh do as follows:

1. Select the mesh you want to assign (since there can be more than one). In our case select as
follows:
65 9 Using Manning’s n Shapefiles

2. Right-click on the ManningsN area property coverage you want to use as a source and on
the pop-up menu, click Convert and then Map → 2D Mesh. Since this is an area property
coverage, it will not create elements, it will only assign material types to the elements.

9.6 Display the Manning’s n on the Existing Mesh

The Manning’s n data has now been copied to an area property coverage and assigned to mesh
elements. To display the materials on the mesh do as follows:

1. Open the Display Options dialog clicking Display Options on the Display menu.

2. Select 2D mesh in the tree menu to the left of the dialog.

3. Unselect Contours.

4. Select Materials and Materials Numbers.

9.7 Enter n-values for Each Material 66

5. Click OK

The display will look similar to the one shown on the following Figure.

Figure 9.4 – Display of materials (Manning’s n).

9.7 Enter n-values for Each Material

To complete the process you must enter the n-values for each material.

1. Select the Mesh module.

2. On the RiverFlow2D menu, click Material Properties...

3. In the Material Properties dialog enter the Manning’s n values for each material as shown.
67 9 Using Manning’s n Shapefiles

Figure 9.5 – RiverFlow2D Material properties.

4. Click OK to end the Manning’s n assignment.

9.8 Save the Project and Check that Manning’s n have

been Updated in the .2dm file
1. Save the project using the save project icon:

2. Open the mesh1.2dm file using Notepad or any text editor. The file is in the following folder:

...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\ManningsNShapefileTutorial\RiverFlow2D\
Mesh1\
3. Go to the final part of the file and look for the MAT VAL entries. They will look like these:

MAT 11 “0.03”
MAT 4 “0.035”
MAT 7 “0.04”
MAT 12 “0.05”
MAT 8 “0.055”
MAT 9 “0.06”
MAT 6 “0.085”
MAT 3 “0.09”
MAT 10 “0.115”
MAT 5 “0.13”
MAT 1 “Material 01”
MAT 2 “Material 02”
MAT MULTI 0
9.8 Save the Project and Check that Manning’s n have been Updated in the .2dm file 68

MAT DEF 1 1 “Mannings N” 2 3.50000000e-002 0.00000000e+000 1.79769313e+308

ENDPARAMDEF
BEG2DMBC
GP VAL 1 7 “Transient”
GP VAL 3 2 -1
GP VAL 3 3 -1
MAT VAL 11 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 4 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 7 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 12 1 1 5.00000000e-002
MAT VAL 8 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 9 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 6 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 3 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 10 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 5 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 1 1 1 3.50000000e-002
MAT VAL 2 1 1 3.50000000e-002

This concludes the Manning’s n shapefile tutorial. You may continue to experiment with
shapefiles in RiverFlow2D SMS by adding other pertinent GIS data into your projects.
 Simulating Bed Load Sediment Transport with
Limited Erosion Bed Areas
10
In the Sediment Transport model you can define areas with a maximum erosion depth. This is
useful to represent pavements, rock outcrops or any surface that does not erode or that it has a
known erodible layer of sediment above it.
This tutorial illustrates how to perform a sediment transport simulation in which there is a
non-erodible area. The procedure includes the following steps:

1. Create new values (materials) corresponding to the maximum erosion depths.

2. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

3. Create a MaximumErosionDepth coverage and the polygons defining the limited erosion
areas.
4. Generate the mesh.
5. Run the model.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\MaxErosionDepth

10.1 Open an Existing Project

On the File menu, click Open to open the existing project: [Link].

69
10.2 Create New Maximum Erosion Depth Values 70

Figure 10.1 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

This project already contains a terrain elevation dataset, a model domain extent polygon,
outflow boundary conditions, and empty MaximumErosionDepth coverage.
If you are starting a new project that does not include the MaximumErosionDepth Coverage
you may create one as follows:

1. Right-click on Map Data and click on New Coverage

2. On the dialog select Area Property
3. Enter MaximumErosionDepth as Coverage Name

4. Click OK.

10.2 Create New Maximum Erosion Depth Values

Use the Material Data Command in the Edit menu to create new Material Data entries with
numeric values that will correspond tow the maximum erosion depth that you want to associate
with each polygon. To add new values, use the New button, and enter Material values. In this
case we will enter 0.0:
71 10 Simulating Bed Load Sediment Transport with Limited Erosion Bed Areas

Figure 10.2 – Materials Data Dialog to enter maximum erosion depths.

10.3 Create the Maximum Erosion Depth Polygon

We will create a maximum erosion depth polygon in the MaximumErosionDepth area coverage.

Note that the MaximumErosionDepth coverage name should not be changed. If you use a different
name for this coverage, the model will not be able recognize the polygons.

1. To create the polygon, first click on the on the MaximumErosionDepth coverage to make
sure it is the active layer.
2. Using the Create Feature Arc tool, draw a polygon as shown:

Figure 10.3 – Maximum erosion depth polygon.

10.3 Create the Maximum Erosion Depth Polygon 72

3. On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.

If you are entering more than one polygon, make sure that they do not have common edges.
If you need to have side-by-side polygons, create each one independently in such a way that
even though they may have coincident edge, the polygons are unique (see Figure 10.4).

Figure 10.4 – Polygons must be independent.

4. To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this, click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu,
click Select All, then right-click on the plot window and on the pop-up menu, click Convert
to Nodes to convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 10.5 – Convert vertices to nodes.

5. Use the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click. On
the pop-up menu, click Attributes:
73 10 Simulating Bed Load Sediment Transport with Limited Erosion Bed Areas

Figure 10.6 – Assign maximum erosion depth value to polygon.

6. In the dialog select Material 0 from the drop-down material list, and click OK:

Figure 10.7 – Select value for polygon.

This completes the creation of maximum erosion depth polygons.

10.4 Generate the Mesh

To finalize the spatial data preparation, click on the Mesh1 coverage under Map Data, and
use the Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to generate the mesh.

Figure 10.8 – The project folder and the mesh share the same name.

10.5 Set the Global Parameters

1. Click on the Mesh Data Coverage, and on the the RiverFlow2D menu, click Global Parame-
ters. Select the options in Bed Load Sediment Transport as indicated:
10.6 Running the Model 74

Figure 10.9 – Bed Load Sediment Transport tab.

Make sure to set the Erosion Depth Options to Defined as Dataset as shown.

2. Then, on the Control Data tab, set the simulation time to 12 hours, and save the project.

10.6 Running the Model

To run the model,

1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.
2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Run RiverFlow2D. This will bring up the RiverFlow2D
Data Input Program in which you can set all the run control parameters for the RiverFlow2D
including the Bed Load Sediment Transport parameters in the Sediment Transport Panel:
75 10 Simulating Bed Load Sediment Transport with Limited Erosion Bed Areas

3. Click the Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the main DIP window to run the
program. You will see a the dynamic window similar to this:

4. Close the dynamic window.

10.7 Post-processing the Model Results

To view the model results in graphic form, do as follows:
1. Click on File and click Open
2. On the dialog search the project folder where the results files are located. Typically, this
folder is a few levels down the directory structure.
3. Click on the file Mesh RESULTS.HDF5 and then click Open. A new set of graphic layers
will appear under the Mesh coverage:
4. Select Delta Bed Elev (ft) to view the erosion and deposition graph.
5. Click Display Options dialog.
6. On the 2D Mesh tab, select Contours.
7. On the Contours tab, select Color Fill from the Contour method drop-down list.
8. Click OK.
You can now click on the time step you wish to graph. The following figure shows a plot similar
to the one you will see:
10.7 Post-processing the Model Results 76

Figure 10.10 – Erosion and Deposition Graph.

Hovering the cursor over the non-erodible area will show a 0.0 erosion depth on the lower left
part of the window.
 Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations
11
This tutorial presents an application of the RiverFlow2D ST module to perform a suspended
sediment transport simulation. It assumes that you have completed a simulation similar to the
one described in the Creating your First RiverFlow2D Project tutorial presented earlier in this
document. For convenience a completed simulation is included in the tutorial folder indicated
below.
The following steps are discussed:
1. Open SMS
2. Open [Link]
3. Set suspended sediment data in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program
4. Add the inflow concentrations for each suspended sediment fraction
5. Run RiverFlow2D from the Data Input Program
6. View RiverFlow2D Sediment Transport Model results

All the data files required to follow this tutorial are in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\SuspendedSedimentTutorial

11.1 Run SMS and Open the Existing Project File

To open the project file do as follows:

1. Open the SMS Program double-clicking the SMS icon on your desktop .
2. On the File menu, click Open.
3. Search for the Select the file [Link] in the folder for this tutorial
and click the Open button.

77
11.2 Set suspended sediment data in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program 78

11.2 Set suspended sediment data in the RiverFlow2D

Data Input Program
To set the suspended sediment data, you first need to generate the .2dm file and create the
RiverFlow2D data files. This is performed using the RiverFlow2D menu and clicking Run River-
Flow2D. A temporary window will appear and then the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program (DIP)
window will display. Enter the data shown below making sure that the Sediment Transport module
is activated:

Figure 11.1 – RiverFlow2D Data Input Program with Sediment Transport Module activated.

In the Sediment Transport Panel, enter the suspended sediment data as shown. Note that the
Suspended Sediment mode is selected and Bed Load is turned off.
79 11 Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations

Figure 11.2 – RiverFlow2D Data Input Program with Suspended Sediment Data.

11.3 Add the Inflow Concentrations for each Fraction

When using the suspended sediment model, the user must impose volume concentration for each
sediment fraction at all inflow boundaries. This data should be included in the same file that
sets the discharge time series at each inlet. For instance, if you select one sediment fraction and
BCType = 6 where the inflow is set as discharge, the inflow boundary condition file should be like
this:

4
0.0 1000. 0.001
1.5 10000. 0.001
2.0 67000. 0.001
12.0 67000. 0.001

Where the first line indicates that there are 4 times. The first column corresponds to the time
in hours: 0, 1.5, 2 and 12 hours in this example. The second column is the water discharge in
f t3 /s. The third column indicate the sediment volume concentrations for the given fraction.
To enter this data first select the sediment transport panel. Only the inflow discharge will
appear initially as shown:
11.3 Add the Inflow Concentrations for each Fraction 80

Figure 11.3 – RiverFlow2D Data Input Program showing the Open Boundary Conditions Panel.

Now click on the INFLOW_1.QVT file. A message box will remind you that you need to add one
volumetric suspended sediment concentration for every fraction selected. You will need to enter
the data for one column and all times as depicted:
81 11 Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations

Figure 11.4 – RiverFlow2D Data Input Program showing the Open Boundary Conditions Panel with
the completed concentration column.

Finally, click Save button under Load.

11.4 Run RiverFlow2D from the Data Input Program

To run the model do as follows:

1. On the lower frame of the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program, click Run RiverFlow2D.
2. In the following dialog, click Yes to save your changes.

The window shown in the figure below will appear indicating that the model has started running.
The window also reports the simulation time, volume conservation errors for both water and
sediment, total inflow and outflow discharges, and other parameters as the run progresses.
11.5 View RiverFlow2D Sediment Transport Model Results 82

Figure 11.5 – Sediment Transport Model Run Report Window.

When the simulation finishes, close the dialog using the X icon on the upper right corner of
the window. Another window will report on the final generation of post processing files.

11.5 View RiverFlow2D Sediment Transport Model

Results
1. On the File menu, click Open.

2. Find the MESH1_RESULTS.HDF5 file located in the folder where your project is saved and
select the file. This folder will have the same name as the mesh (e.g. MESH1 ) and will be
three directory levels below the one containing the .sms file.

3. Click the Open button.

Once the RiverFlow2D output file has been imported as Mesh Dataset you must decide on how to
view the data. The Project Explorer may be used to select the desired Scalar and Vector output
datasets. Scalar data sets are identified by the scalar icon and the vector datasets have the vector
icon identifying them.
83 11 Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations

A convenient way to render the model results is to output the bed elevation changes editing
the contour display options.

1. Activate the Delta Bed Elev (ft) output scalar dataset by selecting it in the Project Explorer.
2. Select the Display Options macro in the Display Toolbar.
3. In the 2D Mesh tab, click the All off button to turn off current display options.

4. Turn on the Contours, and Mesh boundary.

5. Under the Contours tab, change the Contour Method to Color Fill.
6. Click OK to exit the dialog box
7. Select de desired time step.

SMS will redraw the screen similar to the one below.

Figure 11.6 – Sediment Transport Model run result visualization.

This concludes the Suspended Sediment Transport Simulations tutorial.

11.5 View RiverFlow2D Sediment Transport Model Results 84
 Wind Driven Circulation
12
RiverFlow2D allows defining wind velocity on the water surface to account for the effect of the wind
stress on the flow velocities. tThe conceptual model of a wind driven simulation with RiverFlow2D
requires a series of non-overlapping polygons that determine the wind velocity data to the model.
Only areas covered by polygons will be affected by the wind stress. Each wind velocity polygon
should be associated with a file containing a wind velocity time-series file containing the two com-
ponents of the wind velocity vector for each time. The user will need to generate the wind velocity
data file associated with each polygon, and copy them to the project folder, prior to running the
model.

This tutorial illustrates how to perform a wind drive simulation. The procedure includes the
following steps:

1. Create new Materials corresponding to each wind velocity files.

2. Create wind velocity time-series data files.

3. Create the infiltration data file.

4. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

5. Create Wind coverage and the wind velocity polygons.

6. Generate the mesh.

7. Run the model.

8. Visualize model results.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\WindTutorial

85
12.1 Open an Existing Project 86

12.1 Open an Existing Project

On the File menu, click Open to open the existing project: [Link].

Figure 12.1 – Existing RiverFlow2D project.

This project represents a simulation of wind driven circulation in Lake Champlain in the USA,
and already contains a bed elevation dataset, a model domain extent polygon, and an empty Wind
area coverage.

12.2 Create New Materials Corresponding to Wind

Velocity Files
1. Use the Material Data command in the Edit menu to create new Material Data entries. In
the RiverFlow2D SMS GUI the wind velocity data file names will correspond to the material
87 12 Wind Driven Circulation

names entered in the Materials Data Dialog.

2. To add new data file names, use the New button, and enter Material names that will cor-
respond with the wind velocity data files that you want to associate with each polygon. In
this tutorial we will enter [Link] as shown:

Figure 12.2 – Materials Data Dialog to enter wind velocity data file names.

12.3 Create the Wind Velocity Time-series Data File

To run a wind driven simulation with RiverFlow2D you will create polygons over which the wind
velocity data will be applied, but first you need to create the wind velocity time series ASCII text
files that will be associated with each polygon. These files can be created with any text editor
such as Notepad or Wordpad. The wind velocity file has the following format:

Line 1: Number of points in the time series of wind velocity.

NP

NP lines containing:

TIME Wvx (m/s or ft/s) Wvy (m/s or ft/s)

where Wvx is the wind velocity vector component in the x direction, and Wvy is the wind velocity
vector component in the y direction.
The following table is an excerpt of the [Link] file that is included in the Data
folder for this tutorial.

6544
0 5.971128609 -2.165354331
1 5.085301837 8.825459318
2 3.838582677 6.627296588
3 5.872703412 4.921259843
...
12.4 Create the Wind Polygons 88

12.4 Create the Wind Polygons

We will create one wind velocity polygon in the Wind area coverage.

Note that the Wind coverage name should not be changed. If you use a different name for this
coverage, the model will not be able recognize the wind polygons.

1. First click on the on the Wind coverage to make sure it is the active layer.
2. Using the Create Feature Arc tool, draw a polygon similar to the one shown in Figure 12.3.

Figure 12.3 – Wind polygon.

In this tutorial we assume that the wind velocity is uniform over the whole mesh area.
However, in other cases you may have as many polygons as needed.
3. On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.
89 12 Wind Driven Circulation

To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this, click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu,
click Select All, then right-click on the plot window. On the pop-up menu, click Convert to
Nodes to convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 12.4 – Convert vertices to nodes.

4. Now, click the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click.
On the pop-up menu, click Attributes:

Figure 12.5 – Assign wind velocity data file name to polygon.

5. In the dialog select Material, [Link] from the drop-down material list, and
click OK:

Figure 12.6 – Select wind velocity data file name for polygon.

This completes the creation of wind velocity polygons.

12.5 Generate the Mesh and Copy Wind Velocity Files

to the Mesh Folder
To finalize the spatial data preparation, click on the Mesh coverage under Map Data, and use the
Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to generate the mesh. Then copy WindVelocDATA.
DAT to the mesh folder. In this tutorial this folder should be
...\ExampleProjects\WindTutorial\WindTutorial\RiverFlow2D\Mesh1.
12.6 Running the Model 90

Figure 12.7 – The project folder pointing to the mesh coverage.

12.6 Running the Model

1. Click on the Mesh Data Coverage,
2. Click Run RiverFlow2D on the RiverFlow2D menu.

Please, ignore the Mesh boundary conditions incomplete warning. It just indicates that you
have no open boundaries in this mesh, which is correct in this case since this is a lake.

3. The Data Input Program will appear.

4. Select Wind on the Control Data panel, set the Simulation time to 4 hours, Output interval
to 0.1 hours, and Horizontal water surface elevation as shown in Figure 12.8.

5. Save the project.

91 12 Wind Driven Circulation

Figure 12.8 – Control Data panel.

6. Finally, click the Run RiverFlow2D button. Figure 12.9 shows the dynamic window at the
end of the run.
12.7 Visualizing Wind Driven Circulation Results 92

Figure 12.9 – RiverFlow2D window at the end of the Wind Simulation tutorial run.

7. Close the window using the Close Window icon on the upper right of the window.

12.7 Visualizing Wind Driven Circulation Results

When the model completes the execution and has generated all of result files, you can use SMS
visualization tools to explore results. This is accomplished by opening the Mesh_RESULTS.HDF5
file that the model creates in the project folder. For instance, you may create velocity field plots
as shown in Figure 12.10.
12.7 Visualizing Wind Driven Circulation Results 93

Figure 12.10 – Visualization of wind simulation results.

12.7 Visualizing Wind Driven Circulation Results 94
 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach
13
This tutorial will show you how to add an internal dam to you project and simulate a dam breach
with the RiverFlow2D Dam Breach Component. The procedure involves the following steps:

1. Create the dam breach time series data file.

2. Open an existing RiverFlow2D project.

3. Enter the dam polyline.

4. Enter breach data.
5. Enter the initial water surface elevations.
6. Generate the mesh.

7. Run the model.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\DamBreachTutorial

13.1 Create a Breach Time Series Data File

Figure 13.1 shows the front view of the schematic dam breach that we want to incorporate to the
model. The breach time series file includes the time variation of the breach width b and height Hb
for various times.

95
13.1 Create a Breach Time Series Data File 96

Figure 13.1 – Dam Breach Representation in RiverFlow2D.

This file can have any name. The first line represents the number of times or lines in the file,
and then follows as many lines with the time (hrs) b (ft or m) and height Hb (ft or m). For instance
the following file has 3 times: 0.0, 0.5 and 24.0 hours. For time 0, the breach width and heght is
0, so the breach has not started to form. Then for time 0.5 hours the breach width is 20m and
the breach height is 2m. For intermediate times the model interpolates between the previous and
following times.

3
0.0 0.0 0.0
0.5 20.0 2.0
24.0 20.0 14.0

You may use the Dam Breach panel in RiverFlow2D Data Input Program to create a dam
breach time series file and lets you edit the time, width and height values (see Figure 13.2).
97 13 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach

Figure 13.2 – Dam Breach panel in the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program.

13.2 Enter the Dam Polyline in the Default Map

Coverage
This step ensures that the mesh will conform to the dam alignment with nodes generated along
the dam, cells at each side of the polyline. In this case we will enter the dam is a straight line as
follows:

1. Click on the default map coverage.

2. Using the Create Feature Arc draw the polyline at the dam location.
3. Select the polyline using the Select Feature Arc and redistribute the vertices so that the
spacing is 50 m. You should see the dam polyline as shown in Figure 13.3.
13.2 Enter the Dam Polyline in the Default Map Coverage 98

Figure 13.3 – Dam polyline in the main map layer.

4. Now select the polyline again using the Select Feature Arc.
5. Right click and select Attributes...

Figure 13.4 – Feature arc attributes dialog.

6. Select Boundary conditions and click Options.

7. Select Dam Breach and enter the data as shown in Figure 13.5 and click OK.
99 13 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach

Figure 13.5 – Dam breach boundary conditions dialog.

13.3 Enter the initial water surface elevations

Figure 13.6 – Polygon used to set the initial water elevations on the reservoir.

Use the Material Data Command in the Edit menu to create new Material Data entries with
numeric values that will correspond with the initial water elevation that you want to associate
with each polygons. To add new values, use the New button, and enter Material values. In this
case we will enter 115.0:
13.3 Enter the initial water surface elevations 100

Figure 13.7 – Materials Data Dialog to enter initial water elevation.

We will create an initial water elevation polygon in the InitialConditions area coverage.

Note that the InitialConditions coverage name should not be changed. If you use a different name
for this coverage, the model will not be able recognize the polygons.

To create the polygon, first click on the on the InitialConditions coverage to make sure it is
the active layer, and using the Create Feature Arc tool, draw a polygon as shown:
On the Feature Objects menu, click Build Polygons to finalize the polygon.

To generate the data structures correctly, the polygon needs to be defined by nodes instead
of vertices. To enforce this, click on the Select Feature Vertex icon , on the Edit menu, click
Select All, then right-click on the plot window and on the pop-up menu, click Convert to Nodes to
convert all vertices to nodes.

Figure 13.8 – Convert vertices to nodes.

Use the Polygon Selection icon , click inside the polygon to select it, and right click. On the
pop-up menu, click Attributes:
101 13 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach

Figure 13.9 – Assign a water elevation value to polygon.

In the dialog select Material, 60 from the drop-down material list, and click OK:

Figure 13.10 – Select value for polygon.

This completes the creation of the water elevation polygons.

13.4 Generate the Mesh

To finalize the spatial data preparation, use the Map → 2D Mesh on the Feature Object menu to
generate the mesh. Check that the resulting mesh is perfectly aligned with the dam as shown in
Figure 13.11.
13.5 Running the Model 102

Figure 13.11 – Mesh aligned with dam polyline.

13.5 Running the Model

Now that you have generated the unstructured mesh you need to set up RiverFlow2D run control
data and other non-spatial model parameters.

1. Select the Mesh Data in the Project explorer to make the Mesh Module the active module.
2. On the RiverFlow2D Menu menu, click Global Parameters
This will bring up the RiverFlow2D Global Parameters dialog in which you can set the run
control parameters for RiverFlow2D.
3. Make sure that the Dam Breach component is selected n the Control Data panel:

Figure 13.12 – Dam Breach Component.

103 13 Simulating an Internal Dam Breach

4. On the Control Data tab, enter the options as shown below. Note that the Initial Conditions
should be set as Define Initial WSE as Dataset in order to capture the initial water surface
elevation that was specified for the reservoir in the InitialConditions coverage

Figure 13.13 – Dam Breach Control Parameters.

Leave all other parameters at their default values.

To run the model, click Run RiverFlow2D button on the lower section of the Data Input
Program. A window will appear indicating that the model has started running. The window also
reports the simulation time, volume conservation error, total inflow and outflow discharge, and
other parameters as the run progresses.
13.5 Running the Model 104

Figure 13.14 – Dam Breach Run Window.

Note that the Simulation Status frame indicates that the Dambreach file has been read and
that the Dam Breach component is ready before the simulation started.
 Post-processing Calculations
14
14.1 Creating an Observation Coverage
Observation coverages can be created to facilitate the model verification and calibration process,
allowing users to verify simulation results with observed data.

To create observation coverage:

1. Right-click the Map Data item in the Project Explorer.

2. Click New Coverage on the pup-up menu.
3. Set the coverage type to Generic | Observation.
4. Enter the coverage name.
5. Click OK to exit the dialog.

There are two tools that can be used in observation coverage:

• Observation points are created at locations where calibration data such as the velocity or
water surface elevation has been measured in the field. Each observation point is used to
compare the measured values with the values computed by the model at the x, y location.
Creating an observation point is just like creating a feature point in any other coverage type:
1. Select the Create Feature Point tool from the Toolbar.
2. Click the location for the feature point.
• Observation arcs, to view the results at a cross section or along the river profile. You can
also compute fluxes across the arc that can be compared to measured discharge. Creating
an observation arc is just like creating a feature arc in any other coverage type:

1. Select the Create Feature Arc tool from the Toolbar.

2. Click to create the arc.

105
14.2 Cross Sections 106

3. Double-click to end the arc.

To create observation arc from a shapefile:

1. Bring in a shapefile with the cross-sections.

2. Convert the shapefile to feature objects to get arcs.

3. Double click the arc.
4. Choose the module: scalar as water depth or vector as velocity.

5. Discharge is reported for each arc in the observation arcs box.

14.2 Cross Sections

Cross sections or profiles can be created using observation arcs in SMS. Arc attributes in SMS can
be set up once the model has completed a run and the results are read back into SMS. To create
a cross section of the river:

1. Right click on the Map Data object in the Project Explorer and create a new coverage. Make
the type an Observation coverage by right clicking and selecting Type | Generic | Observation
and make its name ‘Observation Plots’. Click on this new coverage to make the Map module
active. (SMS creates a separate coverage to keep the observation arcs separate from the
exiting observation points. When an observation arc is being created, observation points
may be clicked joining them to the arc. Observation points and arcs can exist on the same
coverage.)
2. Select the Create Feature Arcs tool from the Toolbox.
3. With the cross sections created, open the Observation Coverage dialog and assign a unique
color and an appropriate name to each arc.
107 14 Post-processing Calculations

Figure 14.1 – Cross sections arcs on the Observation coverage.

With the arcs created, the plots can now be generated as follows:

1. On the Display menu, click Plot Wizard...

2. Choose Observation Profile as the Plot Type and click Next.

3. Turn on the Specified option, and check only the Bed elevation data set in the Generic
Solution and the water surface elevation data set in the .hdf5 solution.

4. Turn off the three cross-section arcs in the Arcs spreadsheet by turning off their corresponding
Show toggles.

5. Click Finish to close the Plot Wizard and generate the plot.

The profile plot of the geometry of the stream will of appear as shown in Figure 14.2.

To view the velocity distribution across the three cross sections:

1. Create a new Observation Profile plot.

2. Turn on the velocity mag data set in the solution.

3. Show only the three cross section arcs.

14.3 Profiles 108

Figure 14.2 – Profile plot of the geometry of the stream.

14.3 Profiles
Profiles can be created using observation arcs in SMS. Profiles attributes in SMS can be set up
once the model has been run and the results are read. To create a profile of the river:

1. Right click on the Map Data object in the Project Explorer and create a new coverage.

2. Make the type Observation coverage and make its name Profiles’.

3. Click on this new coverage to make the Map module active. User can create a separate
coverage to keep the cross section arcs separate from the exiting profiles. Profiles and cross
section arcs can exist on the same coverage.

4. Choose the Create Feature Arc tool from the Toolbox.

109 14 Post-processing Calculations

5. Create an arc down the main channel. Remember to double-click the last point to end the
arc.

When the plots are drawn, they will use the name and color associated with the observation
arc. To change the name and color of the arc:

1. Choose the Select Feature Arcs tool from the Toolbox.

2. Double-click on the profile arc.
3. In the Observation Coverage dialog, change the Name of the arc to ‘river profile’ in the
Observation Arcs.
4. Click OK to close the Observation Coverage dialog.

With the arcs created, the plots can now be generated. To do this:

1. On the Display menu, click Plot Wizard...

2. Choose Observation Profile as the Plot Type and click Next.

3. Turn on the Specified option, and check only the bed elevation data set in the Generic
Solution and the water surface elevation data set in the .hdf5 solution.
4. Turn off the additional arcs in the Arcs spreadsheet by turning off their corresponding Show
toggles and turn on the arc corresponding with the profile.
5. Click Finish to close the Plot Wizard and generate the plot.
14.3 Profiles 110
 15
Interpolation Methods

The interpolation methods in SMS can be call on as:

1. Explicit procedure: user selects to interpolate a scatter dataset to a mesh or to a map, by
selecting the Scatter Menu in the Scatter Module. The Scatter Set should already exist
in the project as well as the mesh or map to which the interpolation will be linked. The
interpolation control dialog can be accessed from the Scatter Menu by clicking on one of the
three options:
• Interpolate to Mesh
• Interpolate to Scatter
• Interpolate to Map
2. Implicit procedure: is part of the automatic mesh generation and it was explained already
in Section 5 of this Manual. The interpolation control dialog can be accessed from the
Conceptual Model Coverage by selecting the polygons using the Select Feature Polygon ,
right clicking on the polygon and click on Attributes, the Mesh Polygon Properties will open,
the interpolation dialog will open by clicking on Scatter
The options to select in the interpolation option dialogs can be described as:

• New dataset name: name of the new dataset (or function) created by interpolation.
• Map Elevation: only for interpolation to mesh nodes, the new dataset is mapped to
be the elevation function.
• Interpolation Method: the supported interpolation methods in SMS include:
(a) Linear
(b) Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW)
(c) Natural Neighbor (NN)
• Default Extrapolation Value: for linear and NN interpolation methods, if the scatter
set does not bound the data being interpolated to, the extrapolation value is used.
• Existing Dataset Value: corresponding value from a specified existing dataset can
be used for locations outside of the bounds of the scatter set. The dataset must be from
the same object being interpolated to and must be of the same type (i.e. scalar, vector).

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Figure 15.1 – Interpolation Control dialog.

• Truncate Values: when interpolating a set of values, it is sometimes useful to limit

the interpolated values to a specific range. Depending on the application different
meaningless values can be truncated. Sometimes, an interpolation scheme will produce
negative values even if all of the scatter points have positive data values. This occurs in
areas where the trend in the data is toward a zero value. The interpolation may extend
the trend beyond a zero value into the negative range. In such cases it is useful to limit
the minimum interpolated value to zero. Interpolated values can be limited to a given
range by entering a minimum and maximum interpolation value.
• Scatter Set/Function: user selects the desired scatter point set and the function to
interpolate from.
• Time Steps: if the function is transient the user selects the option to interpolate a
single time step or multiple time steps.
• Time Step Interpolation: if interpolating multiple time steps, the user can select
the beginning time, the step size, and the number of time steps to interpolate. The
user can also choose to interpolate between time steps or to match time steps that fall
within the specified time range.
 Using Huge Elevation Data Sets
16
The way to import and filter huge elevation point datasets is as follows:

1. Use the import wizard tools to only bring in a portion of the data generally divided up by
area (bounding box). Second step of the import wizard choose the filter options button.
2. Filter the scatter set using the filter tool in SMS. Scatter module choose Data | Filter.

3. Save the filtered data to a SMS file.

4. Delete the scatter set.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for different areas until all of the points you are interested in have been
filtered.

6. Load each of the files and merge them into a single scatter set. The best way to do this
might be to start with the first scatterset, load another file, merge it into the merged scatter
set, delete it, and repeat. Doing this SMS will only have the merged scatterset and one other
scatterset at the same time.
7. If the total number of points is still too large, you may have to filter the individual scattersets
further.

ASCII Elevation data files with more than 750 million of points will need to be filtered using
the SMS Scatter module. The points can be filtered within the import wizard in SMS. Processing
and filtering that many points will require a lot of memory and CPU time.
Another option to import large elevation datasets available from SMS v11.0 is to use the new
Raster Module that is designed for handling elevation datasets with many more points than what
are typically found. Each point in the Raster module requires much less memory than the Scatter
module since the data are on a regular grid and SMS doesn’t have to store triangulation data.
Data in the Raster module can also be interpolated to a mesh.

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 Converting .DXF Files to Scatter Data
17
Drawing Exchange Format (DXF) files are AutoCAD files that contain vector drawing data. They
can be imported for background display or for conversion to feature objects as a scatter data set.
The following steps summarize the procedure that has to be following to convert a DXF to a scatter
data set:

1. Select File | Delete All to clear out the data in SMS.

2. Select File | Open.
3. Open the file .dxf. Project Explorer will display the CAD layer with a set of contours.

4. Right-click on CAD layer in the Project Explorer and select Convert → CAD → Map from
the drop-down menu. A new coverage named CAD will be created. Select this coverage to
make the Map Module active.
5. Right-click on the CAD coverage and select Convert → Map → 2D Scatter.
6. Click OK in Map → Scatter dialog. This process can take a few minutes since the spacing
of the points along the contours is high resolution.
7. Turn off the CAD map coverage and zoom in to the scatter set.

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 Using HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool
18
This tutorial explains how to use the HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool to read elevation data from
HEC-RAS cross sections and use the elevations in RiverFlow2D.
The steps used in this tutorial extract HEC-RAS elevation data and use it in RiverFlow2D are
as follows:

1. Use HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool to read the geometry file and create the X Y Z and
polygon files.

2. Open SMS and import new data for the elevation points.

3. Import the elevation points.

4. Link the bed elevation parameter to the HEC-RAS data layer.

5. Enter the modeling area.

6. Generate the mesh.

7. Check interpolated elevations.

The files required to follow this tutorial can be found in the following directory:
...\Documents\RiverFlow2D_SMS\ExampleProjects\HEC-RASDataExtractionTool

18.1 Read HEC-RAS Geometry File and Create the X

Y Z and Polygon Files
The first step is to open the RiverFlow2D Data Input Program (DIP) and click the Tools panel to
access the HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool:
Click on Extract Data from HEC-RAS and open the geometry file WAILUPE.g02 in the folder:

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18.1 Read HEC-RAS Geometry File and Create the X Y Z and Polygon Files 118

Figure 18.1 – Extract data from HEC-RAS command on Tool panel.

...\Documents\RiverFlow2D SMS\ExampleProjects\HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool

The program reports the number of cross sections, cut-lines and banks found:

Figure 18.2 – Results of HEC-RAS data extraction.

Click OK, and select the directory where you want the output files. In this case, we will put
these files in the same directory of the HEC-RAS geometry file:
119 18 Using HEC-RAS Data Extraction Tool

Figure 18.3 – Folder for HEC-RAS extracted files.

Click OK and the following dialog reports that the output files were created:

Figure 18.4 – Confirmation of HEC-RAS extracted files.

The files indicated in the following table are generated:

Table 18.1 – Files generated by the HEC-RAS Extraction tool.

WAILUPE_ALL_STATIONS.EXP X Y Z Elevation files containing all
points
WAILUPE_ALL_POLY.EXP Polygons that include all points
WAILUPE_CHANNEL_STATIONS.EXP X Y Z Elevation files containing points
in the main channel only
WAILUPE_CHANNEL_POLY.EXP Polygons that include points in channel

The generated X,Y,Z can be imported in SMS to complement other elevation data.
18.1 Read HEC-RAS Geometry File and Create the X Y Z and Polygon Files 120
 Investigating the Mesh Quality
19
Mesh quality can be checked on an existing mesh in SMS:

• On the Display menu, click Display Options.

• Select the 2D Mesh tab.
• Turn off the Contours and turn on the Mesh quality.

• Click the OK button.

The display will refresh without contours and depicting problematic areas. A legend shows the
color corresponding with each quality category.

• Turn off the mesh quality button on Display | Display Options.

The quality checks that are displayed on the mesh are shown in figure 19.2.

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122 19 Investigating the Mesh Quality

Figure 19.1 – Mesh Quality for Hoh River mesh.

Figure 19.2 – Quality checks.

 20
Refining Elements

Sometimes it is needed to increase the mesh resolution on some areas of the mesh. The gradient
of the physical quantities on the mesh might be large or there are sensitive areas that might need
more detail. It is important to understand that refining the mesh too much, will generate a mesh
with more nodes and elements, and that will lead to increased computational time.

20.1 Inserting Breaklines

A nodestring can be used as a breakline to cut elements and refine the mesh. In order to cut the
elements, you must create two nodes, and then define a nodestring. Follow the instructions below:

• Zoom into the area to refine.

• Choose the Create Mesh Node tool from the Toolbox.

After creating the first node, assign the bed elevation value in the edit window to be 171.0.
This will assign the elevation of the new nodes to be similar to the existing nodes. A nodestring
can now be created from one of these new nodes to the other. This nodestring will be used as a
breakline.

• Choose the Create Nodestring tool from the Toolbox.

• Create the nodestring using the new two nodes.

Figure 20.1 – Creating the nodestring to split elements.

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20.2 Arc Inserted on the Conceptual Model Coverage 124

Figure 20.2 – Split elements.

• Select Nodestring | Force Breaklines. Elements will be split.

After the nodestring is used as a breakline, it is no longer needed and it should be deleted.

• Select Edit | Delete or click the Delete macro.

20.2 Arc Inserted on the Conceptual Model Coverage

A Feature Arc can be used to force element edges to appear along the line and refine the mesh. In
order to force nodes to be along a line, the arc must be created on the conceptual model. Follow
the instructions to do this:

• Zoom into the area to refine.

Figure 20.3 – Coarse Elements near the boundary.

• Choose the Create Feature Arc tool from the Toolbox.

• After creating the arc, select Feature Arc , right click.
• Then select Redistribute Vertices, and enter Specified Spacing and Spacing equal to 20 ft.
• There are other options as Number of Segments and Min and Max Spacing that can be used
to specify the number of elements or the spacing that will be created.
125 20 Refining Elements

Figure 20.4 – Feature Arc created near to the boundary to refine the mesh.

Then activate the conceptual model and create a new 2D mesh. The areas around the Feature
Arc will be refined using the defined spacing:

Figure 20.5 – Refine mesh.

The nodes will be forced to pass through the defined feature arc.

Figure 20.6 – Nodes passing through the Feature Arc.

20.2 Arc Inserted on the Conceptual Model Coverage 126
 Creating New Data Sets Using the Data
Calculator
21
A new data sets can be computed by performing operations on scalar values in existing data sets.
Even though RiverFlow2D generates the Froude number for each report time, in this example we
will illustrate the Data Calculator Tool creating a new data set for the Froude Number (F ) using
the equation:
V
F =√ (21.1)
gh
Where

V =velocity magnitude.

g=gravitational acceleration.
h=depth.

Use the following procedure to create the new data set:

1. Select Data | Data Calculator.

2. Highlight the Velocity Mag data set.
3. Under the Time Steps section, turn on the Use all time steps option and add to Expression
button.

4. Click the divide button. Click the sqrt(x) operation. Enter 32.2 for the constant g.
5. Click the multiply button, then highlight the water depth data set and click the Add to
Expression button.

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 128

Figure 21.1 – Expression to calculate Froude number.

6. Enter the name of the field in the Output dataset, enter Computation of Froude and then
click Compute button. SMS will take a few moments to create the data set.
7. Click the Done button to exit the Data Calculator dialog.

The new data set is automatically placed to a .sol file by default, to be edited with any of the
other tools in SMS or saved in a generic data set.
 22
Exporting Shapefiles

To create a shapefile, just use the Save as Shapefile... Command from the File Menu.

Figure 22.1 – Export shapefile command.

This will create a shapefile on the project directory.

129