Thanos Papanicolaou
IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering, The University of Iowa

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Application Note:  1D Hydrodynamic Sediment Transport
   
One-dimensional models: Since the early 1980s, 1-D models have been used with some success in research and engineering practice.  Most of the 1-D models are formulated in a rectilinear coordinate system and solve the differential conservation equations of mass and momentum of flow (the St. Venant flow equations) along with the sediment mass continuity equation (the Exner equation) using finite-difference schemes. 
   
Modeling rills:  Flow in rills is unsteady and under certain conditions can become transcritical.  In this case, step and pool sequences become ubiquitous features of the geomorphology of a rill.  In order to address this issue, a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model was developed to simulate flows in rills using an enhanced TVD-MacCormack scheme.  The sensitivity and validity of the code was tested for two cases.  Because the emphasis here was on the hydrodynamics of the model, the bed was fixed for the two test case scenario considered here.  The model results satisfied the continuity equation for the stream reaches considered and provided and adequate mapping of the water surface profile and the depth averaged velocities.