Unstructured Spectral Element Model for Dispersive and Nonlinear Wave Propagation

Paper in proceedings, 2016

We introduce a new stabilized high-order and unstructured numerical model for modeling fully nonlinear and dispersive water waves. The model is based on a nodal spectral element method of arbitrary order in space and a σ-transformed formulation due to Cai, Langtangen, Nielsen and Tveito (1998). In the present paper we use a single layer of quadratic (in 2D) and prismatic (in 3D) elements. The model has been stabilized through a combination of over-integration of the Galerkin projections and a mild modal filter. We present numerical tests of nonlinear waves serving as a proof-of-concept validation for this new high-order model. The model is shown to exhibit exponential convergence even for very steep waves and there is a good agreement to analytic and experimental data.