The supercritical flow near an abrupt wall deflection is investigated
experimentally and by computer simulations. An extensive series of tes
ts were conducted on a 500 mm wide flume with Froude number up to 8 an
d wall deflection angle up to 11.3-degrees. A special inlet box was in
stalled to provide smooth flow conditions at the flume entrance. By an
alyzing the experimental data, explicit expressions are derived for th
e height of the shock and the velocity ratio. Experimental results are
presented in the form of universal plots of the shock surface and the
two-dimensional velocity field. These may be utilized for engineering
applications or for the verification of mathematical models. The flow
field near a wall deflection was computed by using a two-dimensional
flow model based on the numerical solution of steady, shallow-water eq
uations by the MacCormack explicit finite-difference scheme. The compu
ted and measured flow depths and flow velocities are compared and are
found to be in satisfactory agreement where the assumption of hydrosta
tic pressure distribution is valid. Although the computer simulation c
an predict the location of the jump as well as its equilibrium depth,
several features of the flow resulting from non-hydrostatic pressure d
istribution are not resolved properly.