FlowDepth.md

Solver FlowDepth Solver

General Information

• Solver Fortran File: Flowdepth.f90

• Solver Name: FlowdepthSolver

• Required Output Variable(s): Depth or Height (user defined)

• Required Input Variable(s): None

• Optional Output Variable(s): FreeSurf, FreeSurfGrad1, FreeSurfGrad2 [FreeSurf user defined]

• Optional Input Variable(s): None

• Keywords:

  • Gradient [Real] needs to be set to +/-1.0 (-1.0 is from up to down, +1.0 is from down to up)

  • Calc Free Surface [optional, Logical] triggers the computation of the free surface elevation at the reference surface for the depth or height (default is false)

  • Freesurf Name [optional, String] variable name for the above selected surface elevation value to be computed

  • Flowdepth Skip [Logical] if set to True explicitly skips searching for boundary value of the depth/height variable in a boundary condition

General Description

This solver computes the vertical distance from a surface (either free surface or bedrock in Glaciology) in unstructured grids. In structured grids this is a trivial procedure - not so in unstructured FEM meshes. A degenerated Poisson equation has to be solved in order to get nodal values for either the flow depth below the free surface or the flow height above the bedrock. Optionally, one can also compute the horizontal derivative of the upper/lower surface if Depth/height is calculated. Mind, that the computation is assumed to be aligned with the (either positive or negative) direction of the highest mesh-dimension.

Alternatively, if you are using a structured mesh, you might consider replacing the FlowDepth solver by the StructuredProjectToPlane solver, as explained here.

SIF contents

The required keywords in the SIF file for this solver are:

! This solves the depth underneath the free surface
!--------------------------------------------------
Solver 1
  Equation = "Flowdepth"
   Exec Solver = "Before Timestep"
   Procedure = File "ElmerIceSolvers" "FlowDepthSolver"
   Variable = String "Depth"
   Variable DOFs = 1
   Linear System Solver = "Direct"
   Linear System Direct Method = "UMFPACK"
   ! this sets the direction
   ! -1 is negative z-direction (upside down)
   ! +1 is positive (downside up)
   Gradient = Real -1.0E00
  ! switch that to True, if you want to have 
  ! free surface gradients to be computed
  !------------------------------------
  Calc Free Surface = Logical True
  ! the name for the exported (if not existing) added variable
  ! the gradients will be stored in variables with the base
  ! name given and "Grad1" and (in 3 dimensions) "Grad2" added,
  ! so in our case "FreeSurfGrad1" and "FreeSurfGrad2"
  ! again, if those variables did not exist, they will be
  ! automatically created
  !-----------------------------------------------------------
  Freesurf Name = String "FreeSurf"
End

! This solves the height above the bedrock
!------------------------------------------
Solver 2
  Equation = "Flowheight" ! mind different name
  Exec Solver = "Before Timestep"
  Procedure = File "Flowdepth2" "FlowDepthSolver" ! make a copy of the original solver, to get a separate address space
  Variable = String "Height" ! mind different name for variable
  Variable DOFs = 1
  Linear System Solver = "Direct"
  Linear System Direct Method = "UMFPACK"
  
  Gradient = Real 1.0E00 ! this time positive
  Calc Free Surface = Logical False
End

! boundary at the free surface
!-----------------------------
Boundary Condition 1
  ...
  Depth = Real 0.0
End

! boundary at bedrock
!-----------------------------
Boundary Condition 2
  ...
  Height = Real 0.0
End

! internal boundary with
! no Dirichlet and neither
! the default Neumann condition
!-----------------------------
Boundary Condition 3
  ...
  Flowdepth Skip = Logical True
End

Examples

Tests including the FlowDepthSolver can be found in [ELMER_TRUNK]/elmerice/Tests/{AIFlowSolve, Calving2D, Calving3D, Calving3D_lset, Glen_2D, Hydro_SedOnly, IntegratedVelocity, IntegrateVertically, Permafrost_Biot, SIA}.