Mesh adaptation strategies for shallow water flow

This paper shows how the mesh adaptation technique can be exploited for the numerical simulation of shallow water flow. The shallow water equations ar e numerically approximated by the Galerkin finite element method, using lin ear elements for the elevation field and quadratic elements for the unit wi dth discharge field; the time advancing scheme is of a fractional step type . The standard mesh refinement technique is coupled with the numerical solv er; movement and elimination of nodes of the initial triangulation is not a llowed. Two error indicators are discussed and applied in the numerical exa mples. The conclusion focuses the relevant advantages obtained by applying this adaptive approach by considering specific test cases of steady and uns teady flows. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.