I am fairly new to dam break modeling. I used Samuel’s Eqn when defining cross sections for my model which showed a cross section spacing of ~ 22ft (avg max depth 19 ft and average slope was 0.127 over the entire length of the river) the model ran fine. However, I was going through a USACE presentation on dam break modeling and there was a note on one of the slides that said the “minimum spacing for a dam break model should be in the range of 100 to 200 ft”. This is a much larger spacing than I used. I read on this blog that if cross section spacing is too close, errors can be increased. I tried running the model with a 100 ft cross section spacing and couldn’t get it to run. The time step is 2 seconds.
Can anyone provide any insight into the reason for the USACE recommended minimum spacing of 100 to 200 ft?
Is my model correct with the 22 foot cross section spacing since I got it to run and results seem reasonable?