Malpasset Dam Break

With Claus Kirchner, a PhD student in Germany, we have been using TsunamiClaw to model dam break problems such as the Malpasset dam break in France. This catastrophic event has served as an important benchmark for the study of dam break modeling. TsunamiClaw is suited for modeling dam break problems since it is based on shock-capturing finite volume methods---methods capable of dealing with the extreme flow regimes and discontinuities present in violent free surface shallow flows associated with dam break problems. Some simulations can be found at his website . You can view one of Claus simulations by clicking the figure below