isis 1d - flood modeller · isis 1d v3.7 quick start guide cost effective, integrated software...

Quick Start Guide

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ISIS 1D

Cost effective, integrated software solutions

ISIS 1D v3.7 Quick Start Guide Cost Effective, Integrated Software Solutions

For further information, email [email protected] or visit ch2mhill.com/isis

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Table of Contents

Overview ...................................................................................................................... 3

1. Starting ISIS and Basic Concepts ................................................................................. 3

2. How to Run an Existing Model ..................................................................................... 4

3. How to Build a Single Channel ................................................................................... 10

4. How to Build a Simple Network .................................................................................. 14

5. How to Add Weirs to the River Model.......................................................................... 16

6. How to Run a Flow Model .......................................................................................... 18

7. How to View the Simulation Results ........................................................................... 21

8. Further Information ................................................................................................. 25

9. e-Learning River Hydraulics with ISIS ........................................................................ 25

mailto:[email protected]



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Overview

This Quick Start Guide enables first time users to quickly understand how to use ISIS to construct

and run simple river models. The guide explains some of the basic concepts of ISIS model

construction and the various files used to run a model, also included is a step-by-step guide for

constructing a simple river model:

Chapter 1 Starting ISIS and Basic Concepts explains how to start your ISIS software

and goes through some basic concepts.

Chapter 2 How to Run an Existing Model shows an example of running an already

prepared model, in this case it is a model of a tidal river.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 How to Build a Single Channel, How to Build a Simple Network

and How to Add Weirs to the River Model illustrate the principles of building common

elements of river models, such as a single channel, a simple network and adding weirs.

Chapter 6 How to Run a Flow Model focuses on the steps needed for running a flow

model. This chapter contains a more general explanation of model running than that

provided in Chapter ”How to Run an Existing Model”.

Chapter 7 How to View Simulation Results describes the steps needed for the

visualisation of the results of the ISIS simulation.

Chapter 8 Further Information describes the additional tools and resources which ISIS

suite of software offers.

Chapter 9 e-Learning River Hydraulics with ISIS Educational Resource describes

one of the additional resources - the educational resource available on www.isisuser.com.

This tool will help users learn about hydraulic modelling of flows in open channels, such as

rivers, spillways and canals.

1. Starting ISIS and Basic Concepts

Starting ISIS

Once you have installed the software you will be ready to use ISIS. Users who have purchased a

licence may need to copy the ISIS licence file (isis.set) into the <ISIS>\bin folder (eg c:\isis\bin)

and attach the hardware key or dongle. Then, from the Start menu, select Programs, then select

the ISIS group and click on the ISIS icon . If you are using the Network Licence please follow

the instructions in the documentation provided with your licence file. If you have any questions

please do not hesitate to contact ISIS support (details are at the foot of this page).

The main user interface of ISIS is the Network Properties Window, which opens automatically

every time ISIS is launched. The Network Properties Window is used to enter and view the details

of model components such as river channels and weirs, the initial and boundary conditions and the

connectivity of the hydraulic units that make up the model.

Basic Concepts

ISIS can be used to model flows and water levels in open channels and floodplains. A wide range

of structures, including bridges, sluices, culverts, pumps and weirs can also be modelled.

An ISIS model is constructed using a number of different hydraulic units, which can be thought of

as building blocks that are connected together. In most cases, an ISIS model must have the

following three types of unit as a minimum:

Upstream boundary: to represent the flow entering the model.

Downstream boundary: to represent the downstream water level.

At least 2 river/routing/conduit sections: to represent the river channel.




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Each unit contains model data appropriate to the unit type, e.g. a River Section unit contains

cross-section geometry and roughness data for the river. Units also contain one or more node

labels in order to be able to identify the unit and to be able to define the connectivity with other

units in the model.

Units with the same label are automatically connected. River Section and Conduit units are

connected together in the order in which they appear within the Network Properties Window, from

the beginning to the end of the particular channel reach (the end of a river reach is signified by a

zero distance step in the last River Section unit).

Please note that in this quick start guide we use the shorthand > Name to mean click on the

menu item called 'name', for example> File > Open' means click on the menu item File then click

on submenu item Open.

Files

ISIS uses a range of different files to manage model data and results. The most important ones

are:

.dat files: These contain all model data and can include initial conditions.

.zzs files: These contain initial conditions only.

.ied files: These contain alternative boundary or event data (optional).

.ief files: These contain the simulation parameters, including name and location of the

model data file, start and finish times, timestep etc.

.zzn files: These contain the raw simulation results in binary format.

.ixy and .gxy files: These contain the schematic visualiser and GIS visualiser information,

respectively.

2. How to Run an Existing Model

The chapter shows an example of running a model simulation using the model that has already

been prepared. There is a number of existing examples placed onto the <isis> folder of your

machine during the installation of ISIS. The default location for your ”isis” is C:\isis\data (if ISIS is

installed at a location other than the default folder, it will be xxx\xxx\isis\data where xxx stands

for where ISIS is installed).

This Chapter will explain how to access the ISIS sample file, interpret what it represents, show the

way we can run the simulation based on this file and will help you go through the results obtained

during this simulation.




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1. Launch ISIS. The ISIS user interface is shown on Figure 1.

Figure 1. ISIS user interface

2. Open an example file > File > Open or click the open icon , then browse to the

isis\data folder, open the file called ”TIDAL.DAT”. Click ”No” when it asks you to load the

water quality data (here we are just going to run a flow model without a water quality

component - please note ISIS FREE cannot operate with the water quality). After loading

the tidal model the ISIS user interface should look like that shown on Figure 2.

Figure 2. The model contained in tidal.dat file shown in ISIS Network Properties window

This is a model for a river with a strong tidal influence. Before the simulation is run, let's

view the model of the river in the Visualiser and look at the representation of the

boundary conditions.




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3. View the river model in the Visualiser. To do this, click the Visualiser icon or select

> Tools > Visualiser from the main menu, click 'Ok' when the coordinate dialogue

appears on the screen. Now Figure 3 shows the representation of the model contained in

the file TIDAL.DAT in the Visualiser. The user can see that the river in this model is a

straight single channel.

ISIS actually contains three options for plan views of the model:

Visualiser - for simple schematic views of the model

GIS Visualiser - this can show either a schematic view or a 2D 'real world' GIS

view with raster and vector data as background images

ISIS MAPPER - for 2D and 3D 'real world' GIS views of selected ISIS data

along with raster and vector data. ISIS MAPPER also includes functions for

model building and flood mapping.

Figure 3. The model contained in a sample file TIDAL.dat shown in the Visualiser Tool of

ISIS

4. View the longitudinal profile of the channel. To do this, close the Visualiser and go back

to the main ISIS user interface. Select all the river section units by first selecting the first

unit in the model (node 2.1) and then scroll down to the end of the model (label 3.38)

and press the <Shift> key together with the left mouse button. Then, right mouse click

the selected sections and choose 'Long Section' (or use <Ctrl + L> short cut key or

click the long section picture icon ). Select Plot to generate the graph.

The long section profile that you should see at this stage is shown on Figure 4 (if the blue

area is missing then this indicates that model results are not yet available - we will be

generating results later in this section). This picture clearly shows the varied bed profile

as well as the water level rising to the left of the screen. You can see that most of the

water in this figure is actually below the sea level (shown by the mark 0 on elevation

scale in the left-hand side of the graph).




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Figure 4. The plot of the longitudinal profile of the river represented by the model in

TIDAL.DAT file

5. View the downstream boundary condition. Go back to the main ISIS user interface of the

tidal model shown on Figure 2. Double click the HTBDY unit 3.38 (HTBDY is the ISIS

shorthand for Head Time BounDarY). Click the 'Plot' button of the dialogue that appears.

It will show you the plot of the water level - time series of the downstream boundary

condition of the model in the TIDAL.DAT file. This plot is shown on Figure 5. You can see

that the downstream boundary condition for this model is of a tidal nature.

Figure 5. Plot of the downstream boundary condition of the model in the TIDAL.DAT file

showing a typical tidal time series

We can also view the upstream boundary condition using the same procedure, but

choosing the upstream boundary condition node (2.1) - you will have to close the HTBDY

data form first by clicking on its Cancel button. This boundary condition is represented

by a constant flow of 100m3/s.




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6. View one of the cross sections. Double click one of the river section units (for example

section 2.12), click the 'plot' button of the dialogue that appears on the screen, then you

should see the graph of a cross section on the screen. In the right hand side of the plot

you can see the cross-sectional profile of the river with a flood wall on the right hand side

and to the left of the river you can see a flood plain (250 m wide) with a steep hill on the

left-hand side. Cancel the view of the cross section data.

Figure 6. Profile of the cross section 2.12 of the model in the TIDAL.DAT file

7. Run the simulation. Click the 'flow simulation' icon or select > Run > Flow

simulation. A flow simulation run form interface will appear as shown by Figure 7.

Figure 7. The interface for running the model in the TIDAL.DAT file

Select the Unsteady (Fixed Timestep) button, set the ”Finish time” to 36 hours and

set both the ”Timestep” and ”Save interval” to 360 seconds. Click Run. Click ”Exit”

after the simulation completes (see Figure 8) and ”Close” the run model scenario

dialogue without saving Scenario data (Figure 7).




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Figure 8. The ISIS window showing the completion of unsteady simulation run of the

model in the TIDAL.DAT file

8. View the results. First let's view the water level time series at one of the river sections. It

should be a tide graph similar (but not identical) to the one of the downstream boundary

condition shown by Figure 5. To do this, right click one of the river sections (for example

section 2.26) and select time series and click 'Plot'. The water level result at this section

will be plotted. It is shown by Figure 9.

Figure 9. Time series plot for one of the river sections of the model in the TIDAL.DAT file

Using the ability of ISIS to animate the results we can watch a dynamic animation of the

changes of the water level with time on the longitudinal profile of the river. To do this we

have to plot the long section of the river (the way to plot this are explained in step 4 of

this Chapter), right mouse click inside the long section and click 'animation', then click

the ”Play” button ( )on the animation toolbar at the top of the screen. The simulation

results of the model in TIDAL.DAT will be animated.

Figures 10 to 14 illustrate the changes of the water level in the river represented in the

file TIDAL.DAT in the course of the simulation described earlier. You can see that the

changes of the tidal cycle along the river.




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Figure 10. Water level at

T=0h


T=3h


T=6h


T=0h


T=12h

3. How to Build a Single Channel

This chapter explains the ways of building a model representing a single channel, i.e. a reach of

river that is not branched.

A single channel contains at least four units: upstream boundary condition, downstream boundary

condition and two sections to represent a channel. Figure 15 shows a very simple channel with

eight cross sections.

QTBDY is shorthand for the discharge (Q) Time series boundary condition (for the upstream inflow

to the channel). HTBDY represents the water level time series boundary condition for the

downstream end of the channel.




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Figure 15. A schematic representation of a single channel with eight sections and two boundary

conditions

In order to build such a channel, we have to follow the following steps:

1. Start a new (blank) model in ISIS (> File > New)

2. Insert a Flow-Time Boundary (QTBDY) unit to represent an upstream boundary. To insert

this unit you can either click on the Flow-Time Boundary picture button or select >

Edit > Insert > Boundaries > Hydrographs > Flow/Time from the main menu.

When the Node label editor dialog appears, enter the label S1 (in upper case), and click

'OK'. Save this file with a proper name (for example, singleChannel.DAT) and choose the

location on your computer to place a copy of the file.

3. Specify the data for the boundary condition. Double click on the newly inserted unit to

display the data entry screen for the boundary. Enter the flow data into the Flow-Time

table. As shown by the example below: let's enter a simple hydrograph, peak flow

20m3/s, base flow 10 m3/s and time to peak is 12 hours. Remember to make sure that

the unit of the time is hours (by default it is ”seconds”).

Figure 16. Flow-Time data entry form.




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4. Insert a River Section unit. To insert this unit you can either click on the River Section

picture button or select > Edit > Insert > Channels > River > River Section from

the main menu. When the Node label editor dialog appears, enter the label S1 (in upper

case) and click OK.

Figure 17. Connection of a river unit to a QTBDY unit

5. Click 'Yes' when asked whether you would like to connect the S1 labels. This River

Section unit is located immediately downstream of the Flow-Time Boundary (hence the

node labels of these units are the same).

6. Enter the cross section data. Double click on the newly inserted unit to display the data

entry screen for the River Section. Enter the cross section data into the table, leaving the

rest of the parameters in the table at their default values:

Figure 18. Specification of the cross section data

7. View the cross-sectional profile of the cross-section by clicking on the Plot button. In this

simple example we have used a triangular cross section.




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Figure 19. Plot of the cross section profile

8. Specify the distance between the cross-sections. Enter a certain value for the 'distance to

next section' field, for example 100 metres.

9. Specify the cross-section data for all the cross-sections. Repeat the same procedures 8

times to insert 8 river sections, name them S1 to S8 (to save time you can use copy and

paste).

Note that: the last section must have a 'distance to next section=0', this is used by ISIS

to recognise it as the last section of a channel reach.

10. Specify the information for the downstream boundary condition. For the last channel

section a HTBDY boundary condition unit is inserted in a similar manner as the first

QTBDY boundary condition unit (by clicking the picture icon , and prescribing the time

series data in the table, for example a constant water level of 2 meters).

Figure 20. The Stage-Time data entry form for the downstream boundary condition S8.

11. Visualise the river model. After building the single channel, we can use Visualiser to

visualise the channel that we have just been build. This is done by clicking on the

Visualiser picture icon or select > Tools > Visualiser from the main menu.

Note: Please remember to save your file. For the information on how to run a simulation

and view the results please refer to other sections of this quick start guide.




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4. How to Build a Simple Network

This chapter describes the way of building a model of a branched river (i.e. a river network). The

example river network consists of a main channel and tributary channel (Figure 21).

Figure 21. A schematic representation of a simple network.

For the main channel, S1, S2...S8 are the labels for its cross-sections. T1, T2, T3 and T4 are the

labels for the tributary channel.

As shown in Figure 21, a junction should be built to link the main channel and the tributary at

section S4. In order to insert a junction at section 4, we have to split section S4 into two sections:

S4Up and S4Dn. Then we should place the junction in between S4Up and S4Dn. Please note that

we specify the field ”distance to next section” for S4up section as 0, which physically means S4Up

and S4Dn are the same section.

The detailed procedures of building a simple network are described below:

1. Start ISIS and begin a new model.

2. Build the upstream boundary condition unit (by clicking on one of the icons of the

Boundaries Tool bar eg QTBDY boundary icon ). It should be built in the same manner

as described in Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel". Here we will name this QT

boundary as S1. Save the file with the name simpleNet.DAT.

3. Specify the hydrograph for the upstream boundary condition unit. Double click on the

QTBDY unit in the Network Properties window in ISIS. Enter the time series in the QTBDY

boundary table that opens, for example, take the same hydrograph as described in the

Step 2 of Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel".

Figure 22. Flow-Time boundary data entry form for the upstream boundary condition

4. Build the first cross-section S1. You can do this by clicking the River Section picture icon

; enter input cross section data in the table that opens on the screen.




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Figure 23. Cross-section data entry form

5. Build sections S2, S3, and S4Up in the same manner as for S1, please note that the

S4Up should also have the ”distance to next section” field set to 0, which means S4Up

and S4Dn are same location.

6. Build the Junction and connect this junction to sections S4Up, S4Dn and T4 (S4Dn and

T4 will be built later on). To do this, either click the Junction unit icon or select > Edit

> Insert and then > Junction > Open Junction

Figure 24. Connecting the river units to a junction unit using the Node label editor form

7. Build sections S4Dn, S5 to S8 (cross section shapes can be the same or different).

8. Build downstream boundary condition (say HTBDY) for the main channel S8 and link it to

section S8. The stage-time boundary can be a constant of 2 metres.

9. Build tributary sections T1, T2, T3 and T4.

10. Build the upstream boundary condition (QTBDY) for the tributary T1 and link it to the

section T1 (by having the same label).




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Note: Remember that the last section of each branch (i.e. T4) has the 'distance to next

section=0'

Figure 25 shows the completed model.

Figure 25. The completed simple river network model.

Note: Do not forget to save your file again after building everything. For running the simulation

please refer to Chapter 6 How to Run a Flow Model of this quick start guide.

5. How to Add Weirs to the River Model

This chapter describes the way a user can model hydraulic structures such as weirs in ISIS.

ISIS can deal with various types of hydraulic structures; the general weir unit is one of the most

often used structures.

The Figure 26 shows a simple channel with a weir built in:

Figure 26 (above). A schematic representation of a weir built into a river model

In order to place a weir in an existing modelled reach, we first split our river

reach into two (ending the first reach with a 'distance to next section=0') and

place the weir between the two sub-reaches. The figure on the right illustrates

how this can be done in ISIS.

Figure 27 (right). Visualisation of the channel with the weir between sections

S3 and S5.




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Detailed procedures to build a weir in the channel are covered below:

1. Start ISIS and start a new model (or copy an existing single reach model and adjust the

following instructions to suit).

2. Build an upstream boundary condition unit, for example a flow-time unit S1 (see Step 2

in Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel"). Save the model file as the name Weir.dat.

3. Prescribe the time series in the QT boundary table in the same manner as described in

Step 2 of Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel" or Chapter 4 "How to Build a Simple

Network" of this guide.

4. Build the first river section S1 and connect it to the boundary unit S1 we have just built

(as described in Steps 4 and 5 of the Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel").

5. Build sections S2, S3, and S4Up in the same manner as described in Chapter "How to

Build a Single Channel". Please note that the S4Up has the field ”distance to next

section” set to 0, which means S4Up and S4Dn are same section.

6. Build the weir after section S4Up and input the upstream label as S4Up and downstream

label S4Dn. To do this, either click the general purpose weir icon or select > Edit >

Insert then > Structures > Weirs > Weir.

Figure 28. Connection of the weir unit to the river model using the Node label editor

For the configuration of the weir parameters you should specify the elevation of the crest

and the breadth of the crest. Other parameters can be left with the default values. To do

this, double click the weir unit and the Figure 29 will appear on the screen.




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Figure 29. Entry form for the parameters of the unit Weir

7. Build sections S4Dn, S5 to S8 (cross section shapes can be same or different) as it was

done in Chapter 3 How to Build a Single Channel.

8. Build the downstream boundary condition (for example HTBDY) for the main channel S8

and link it to section S8 (as described in Step 10 of Chapter 3 How to Build a Single

Channel).

6. How to Run a Flow Model

This Chapter describes how to run of an ISIS model. Some details of running a flow model were

given in Chapter 2 How to Run an Existing Model; this Chapter provides more information.

To run a simulation in ISIS you should follow the steps below:

1. Start ISIS

2. Load the model. As an example we can load the simple channel model we built in the

Chapter 3 "How to Build a Single Channel" of this guide. Select > File > Open and

browse to the folder that contains the .dat file (ISIS model file), select it and click Open.

Note: before starting the simulation, all the boundary condition data and cross section

shape data must be prescribed. For this example, we can use the following information.

It is a straight rectangular channel with a length of 700 metres. The shapes of the cross

sections, upstream QTBDY and downstream HTBDY are shown in Figure 30.

Figure 30. Key model data (from left to right): downstream boundary condition;

upstream boundary condition and cross section data




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3. Click the 'Flow simulation' icon or select > Run > Flow simulation. A flow

simulation run form interface will appear. It is shown on the Figure 31.

Figure 31. Run form interface

In this example we will only deal with the 'Times' tab which has a button named 'Run'

on the bottom left side. Detailed information about the tabs and buttons of this form can

be found at > Help > Contents > Using ISIS > ISIS user interface > Run Forms

Interface.

There are five simulation types displaying on the 'Times' tab. For this simple river

channel model, the 'Steady (Direct)' and the 'Unsteady (Fixed Timestep)' options are

used. These two types are explained in more detail below.

It is highly recommended to run a steady simulation before the unsteady one.

4. Running a steady simulation. Select 'Steady (Direct)' simulation type and click on the

'Run' button (or go to Run > Flow simulation in the ISIS run Scenario screen).

After that a window will appear on the screen, which will show the progress of the

simulation. After the simulation finishes, a message ”simulation completed” will

appear. After that you can view the steady simulation results by clicking the 'View'

button. If there are errors during the simulation, the process will stop and an error

message will be shown.

For more on viewing the results please refer to the Chapter 7 How to View the Simulation

Results of this guide.




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Figure 32. Notification of the successful completion of a simulation

5. Running an unsteady simulation. Select 'Unsteady (Fixed Timestep)' simulation type.

Enter the 'start time' and 'finish time'. The time span for simulation must be within the

range of the shortest time span of the boundary conditions which are defined in the

model set-up step. Also, the time step and save interval should be defined (for example

10s for time step and 60 s for save interval).

6. Click on the 'Run' button (or go to Run > Flow simulation) after prescribing the

parameters for the unsteady simulation. A window will pop up showing the simulation

process and some important figures for the model (see Figure 33).




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Figure 33. The progress of the unsteady simulation in ISIS

7. After finishing the unsteady simulation, the summary outputs can be viewed in the form

of plain text. However, other methods for visualisation of the model results can be used.

Please see Chapter 7 How to View the Simulation Results of this guide.

7. How to View the Simulation Results

This Chapter describes how to view the ISIS model results generated from a simulation.

Normally both steady and unsteady simulation results are stored in the same folder that the model

has been stored in. Following the example used in Chapter 3 How to Build a Single Channel and

Chapter 4 How to Run a Flow Model, it will be the single channel model.

The steady simulation results are stored in an ASCII file which has an extension of .zzs. Please

note that this file can be viewed and modified in a normal ASCII editor like Notepad, WordPad, etc.

In order to view the steady simulation results, you can browse to the folder where you stored your

model. Figure 34 shows an example of a .zzs opened using the WordPad.

Figure 34. An example of a .zzs steady results file opened in Wordpad




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In this file flow (m3/s), stage (m elevation) and other information such as Froude number and

velocity are recorded for each channel section.

The unsteady results are stored in a binary file which has an extension of .zzn. This file cannot be

opened in an ASCII editor and we must use ISIS to view the results.

The following options are available for viewing the results - the first three are described in this

guide:

Time series plot in the form of water levels and discharges at each section.

Long section profile of the water levels

Animations of the long section profiles of the water levels

Cross sections with water levels displayed

X-Y plots, eg rating curves

Tabulated results generated from the ISIS TabularCSV tool

2D and 3D flood maps created in ISIS MAPPER

Viewing the ISIS simulation results by means of plotting the time series

1. Start ISIS

2. Load the models for which you have the results of the unsteady simulation run. Select

> File > Open and browse to the folder that your model files are stored in.

3. Right click the section for which you would like to plot the time series and select 'Time

series' (or select the section and use the <Ctrl+T> short cut key).

Figure 35. Selecting the Time Series option for plotting ISIS results

4. Selection of the variables of a cross-section to be used for the plot. After selecting the

time series tool, a form Time Series will appear allowing you to choose what type of data

you want to plot. Let's select the variable Stage and plot it (you may choose to plot other

variables such as Flow, Froude Number etc as well).




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Figure 36. The Time Series Form which allows the user to choose the variables to be

plotted (left); plot of the times series for the water level time series for the results of an

unsteady simulation run (right)

It is possible to add several time series on the same plot, which is very useful for model

calibration. This can be done by right clicking the time series you just plotted and

selecting ”add time series” and choosing the appropriate time series.

Viewing ISIS simulation results by means of plotting the Long section profiles

1. Repeat the steps 1-4 mentioned above. Then select at least two of the cross sections.

This can be done by holding down the <shift> button and clicking the left mouse button.

Click the right mouse button on the selected sections and choose 'Long Section' (or use

<Ctrl + L> short cut key).

Figure 37. Choosing the Long Section option for plotting ISIS results

2. Select Stage and plot. The Long Section plot should look like shown on Figure 38.




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Figure 38. Plot of the long section profile of the results of an unsteady simulation run

The area in blue shows water that filled the sections S2 till S4; the particular time step

for this water level is indicated on the title of this figure - 0 hours (beginning of the

simulation).

Viewing ISIS simulation results by means of an animation

Right click the Long section you have plotted (details above), select 'Animation' and the

animation tool window will appear, as shown on the Figure 39. You can click the 'Play' button to

view the animation of a selected variable (in this case ”water level”).

Figure 39. Animation of a long section water level profile

For more information about the Graphical Output and animations please refer to the ISIS help file

in the section Using ISIS > Graphical Output.




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8. Further Information

A full description of the functionality within ISIS is provided in the other parts of this help

system. In addition CH2M HILL provides training courses to help you get the most out of the

software - for further details on training courses please visit: www.ch2m.com/isis.

This quick start guide should have provided you with an introduction to how to use ISIS. ISIS is a

complex simulation and visualisation package which has many options and features not discussed

in this guide. For example, since version v3.0, ISIS has included ISIS MAPPER, a free tool that

allows 2D and 3D visualisation, automated generation of input files and production of flood maps.

It can be accessed by clicking the ISIS MAPPER icon or selecting > Tools > ISIS MAPPER.

For more information on how to use ISIS MAPPER, refer to the ISIS MAPPER section of the help

file.

The ISIS User Community website (www.isisuser.com) provides lots of useful information about

ISIS including manuals, frequently asked questions, downloads and forums.

9. e-Learning River Hydraulics

The e-learning resource is intended for people wanting to learn about hydraulic modelling of flows

in open channels, such as rivers, spillways and canals. It uses ISIS as a ”virtual lab” to explore

simple hydraulics, providing users with an understanding of the principles behind hydraulic

modelling and its use in flood risk management.

The tool is located on the Online ISIS User Community website (www.isisuser.com) and can be

found under the “Learning” section.

By the end of the course, users should have an understanding of the hydraulic behaviour of simple

open channels, and will also be able to build simple models using ISIS. The resource can also be

used as a quick introduction to the ISIS modelling software for people with previous hydraulic

modelling experience. The course covers

1. Steady Uniform Flow

2. Energy and Momentum Principles

3. Steady non-uniform Flow

4. Unsteady flow

The course also includes various video tutorials instructing users to build simple ISIS models. The

model building activities covered by the course include:

Building a simple channel model and running a steady simulation

Building a model for a non-uniform channel

Simulating hydraulic structures

Crump (triangular profile) weir

Vertical sluice gate

Bridge losses

Culvert flow

Modelling unsteady flow

User can download data for the exercise examples and are presented with quizzes to help confirm

knowledge.

Users should work through the topics sequentially. Extra background on hydraulic principles and

the ISIS model is given on the right hand side of each page.


isis 1d - flood modeller · isis 1d v3.7 quick start guide cost effective, integrated software...

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