Introduction

Computational hydraulics is one of the many fields of science in which the application of computers gives rise to a new way of working, which is intermediate between purely theoretical and experimental. It is concerned with simulation of the flow of water, together with its consequences, using numerical methods on computers. There is not a great deal of difference with computational hydrodynamics or computational fluid dynamics, but these terms are too much restricted to the fluid as such. It seems to be typical of practical problems in hydraulics that they are rarely directed to the flow by itself, but rather to some consequence of it, such as forces on obstacles, transport of heat, sedimentation of a channel or decay of a pollutant. All these subjects require very similar numerical methods and this is why they are treated together in this book. Therefore, I have preferred to use the term computational hydraulics. Accordingly, I have attempted to show the wide field of application by giving examples of a great variety of such practical problems.