Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a science that, with the help of digital computers, produces quantitative predictions of fluid-flow phenomena based on the conservation laws (conservation of mass, momentum, and energy) governing fluid motion. Its applications in urban drainage systems grow rapidly nowadays. Typically, ANSYS CFX/FLUENT and OpenFOAM will be used in my work.
Computational Hydraulics can be considered as a brunch of computational fluid dynamics. From my personal point of view, computational hydraulics particularly refers to solving one-dimensional (1D) or two-dimensional (2D) shallow water problems. And to a certain extent, 1D pipe flow (including waterhammer) modeling and numerical computations for open channel flow, such as water surface profile determination, can also be considered as this kind of problems in the field. A significant difference between computational hydraulics and CFD is how the pressure term is treated in the solution process (or even in the governing equations), as I see it.
Air-water two-phase flows are very common in urban drainage systems. Other multi-phase flows include air-water-sand, air-water-soil and so on. The mechanisms for such flows are still unclear.
Used for modeling.
Matlab is often used to solve ODEs, analyze data and plot figures. Python and R are for data analysis and scientific visualization. Julia is just for fun, rather than a common tool.
Almost Everything about Urban Drainage ©Biao Huang @Ningbo University
©Biao Huang @Ningbo University