The latest release of Flood Modeller provides some key updates that directly relate to enhancing user experience and improve hydraulic solvers. In addition, numerous bugs identified recently by our users, have been addressed.
River Section Unit Form
An issue was experienced by some users when selecting several cross-section units, alternating between the map window and network chart, with a missmatch between the unit selected and the properties displayed in the unit form. This issue has been addressed.
1D River Solver
7.4.0 updated the 1D River solver to provide additional diagnostic information and to prepare for introduction of new 1D units in Version 8.0. Although no changes were made to the hydraulic computations for existing units, some users reported changes in results between 7.3 and 7.4 outside of expected ranges. An issue was identified relating to code optimisation during solver compiling resulting in unexpected changes in results.
The code in 7.4.1 has been refactored and re-compiled to address the issue. 7.4.1 has been subject to additional regression testing against 275 real world and idealised models with results compared to previous solvers from Flood Modeller 4.5 onwards. Tests include double and single precision, simple unit test models, complex design models and forecasting models at high and low flows. Testing showed excellent agreement between solvers for the vast majority of simulations. A small number of simulations demonstrated a change in excess of the 2mm testing threshold and tended to relate to intentional improvements in unit hydraulics (for example multi-arch USBPR) or models with significant sensitivity to boundaries and susceptibility to instability.
A detailed testing report will be published detailing the analysis in more detail and a link provided here once available.
Bug fixes and minor enhancements
Further to the key issues above, the following additional changes are also included in v7.4.1:
Installer updated to include DLL files omitted from previous release which could impact selected functionality.
When the chart settings are accessed to add extra results files or to add an additional variable to an existing long section of cross section plot of 1D river results, it was possible for the title to “lose” the name of the variables plotted (and display “no variable” instead). This issue has been fixed in v7.4.1
The workflow for inspecting 1D river sections has been modified from the changes described in v7.4.0. This workflow still enables the addition of panel markers in the cross-section chart to remove sudden changes in conveyance vs depth (which in turn can lead to model instabilities). However, in v7.4.1, accessing the cross-section plot of the next or previous cross section within a reach requires the Plot button in the unit properties window to be clicked (previously the chart was displayed automatically but it was found that this caused issues when viewing results in the chart). The revised process for cross section analysis is as follows:
Select a river cross-section unit and open its properties window.
Click the Plot button – the cross-section data are displayed on a plot (in a new window) together with the conveyance curve and panel markers by default (they can be easily turned off in the Legend).
At a point in the section where a panel marker is required, right-click on the cross-section plot and select the “Add/remove panel marker” menu option. The effect of the panel marker is immediately seen in the conveyance curve. An alternative option for adding a panel marker is to depress the Alt key when clicking on a cross-section point.
When the cross-section changes are complete, clicking Next or Previous on the node properties window will load the properties of the next or previous node (and close the cross-section chart window). If this is another cross-section, then click the Plot button to display the related cross-section.
If the plot window for navigating sections appears behind the main Flood Modeller interface, select “Show Plot As Top Most window” from the Chart Options dropdown menu in the chart toolbar. This forces the plot window to display in front of all other applications. Remember to close and reopen the plot window for this change to take effect; this also saves its current size as the default for future plots. When enabled, the plot window will stay on top of all programs, so it is best used only when reviewing or editing cross sections.
Note: A current limitation of this process is that to work on both the node properties window and the cross section plot these windows must be on separate screens or separate parts of the same screen.
Known Limitations
In addition to limitations noted for 7.4. The following has been identified. If a long section is generated with no results data, i.e. to just display the bed elevation, and then the chart settings are accessed to add an additional variable, e.g. left and right bank elevations, then two identical instances of the chart window will be generated when the plot button is clicked. Thus, both these windows will need to be closed to return to the main interface.