OpenTELEMAC

OpenTELEMAC

OpenTELEMAC is a suite of numerical modeling softwares for studying free surface flows.

🌊 OpenTELEMAC: Overview of Features

OpenTELEMAC (also known as the TELEMAC-MASCARET System) is an integrated software suite for numerical modeling of free-surface flows. Historically developed by EDF R&D, it stands out for its Open Source approach and the use of the finite element method (unstructured meshes).

1. Hydrodynamic Modules

These modules form the core of the system for computing water velocities and levels.

TELEMAC-2D (Saint-Venant)

The most widely used module. It solves depth-averaged equations.

  • Applications: River floods, coastal flooding, dam breaks, hydraulic structure design.
  • Key Features:
    • Handling of wetting/drying zones (tidal flats).
    • Accounting for turbulence, wind, and atmospheric pressure.
    • Treatment of singularities (weirs, nozzles, siphons).

TELEMAC-3D (Navier-Stokes)

Used for complex three-dimensional flows.

  • Applications: Stratification (salinity/temperature), deep lakes, thermal plumes.
  • Key Features:
    • Directly based on the Navier-Stokes equations to capture vertical effects.
    • The 2D mesh is duplicated vertically using various methods.
    • Non-hydrostatic version available.

MASCARET (1D)

  • Applications: Branched hydraulic networks, very long river reaches, irrigation channels.
  • Strength: Extremely fast (real-time possible).

2. Sedimentology & Morphodynamics

Coupled with hydrodynamics to simulate bed evolution.

GAIA (Successor of SISYPHE)

  • Function: Sediment transport and morphodynamics.
  • Key Features:
    • Allows studying bed evolution considering sedimentation and erosion.
    • Interaction between suspended particles and the bed (useful for studying contamination of river or ocean beds).
    • Models both cohesive (silt, clay, etc.) and non-cohesive sediments.
    • Can simulate underwater landslides.

3. Waves and Swell

TOMAWAK (Spectral)

  • Function: Model the propagation of wind-generated waves.
  • Key Features:
    • Coupled with hydrodynamics.
    • Generates wind-driven swell, propagating on a large scale toward the coast.

ARTEMIS (Agitation)

  • Function: Model wave formation by refraction.
  • Key Features:
    • Used at the end of a hydrodynamic calculation to study wave formation.
    • Useful for modeling standing waves inside ports.
    • Captures wave reflection and refraction around obstacles.

4. Water Quality

WAQTEL

  • Function: Simulation of biological and chemical processes.
  • Key Features:
    • Includes models for the evolution of various chemical species and biological processes (oxygen, bacteria).
    • Considers tracer degradation laws.
    • Divided into multiple sub-modules that can be coupled.
    • Allows studying the evolution of micro-pollutants and their contamination of soils and suspended particles.

5. Ice Studies

KHIONE

  • Function: Simulation of ice formation and evolution processes.
  • Key Features:
    • Study water temperature including supercooling and frazil ice concentration.
    • Predict surface ice transport and ice cover progression.
    • Simulate the evolution and stability of ice layers through thermal and hydrodynamic exchanges.

6. Technical Features (IT & Performance)

What makes OpenTELEMAC powerful from a computing perspective:

  • Unstructured Mesh: Uses triangles allowing variable mesh density (very fine in areas of interest, coarse offshore).
  • HPC: Massive parallelization via MPI. The domain is split and computed over multiple processors/cores to reduce computation time.
  • Strong Coupling: Can run TELEMAC-2D + TOMAWAK + GAIA simultaneously (e.g., a storm generates waves that resuspend sand transported by tidal currents).
  • Python Ecosystem: Robust scripts for launching, coupling, and post-processing data.

Useful Links:

Product | Simvia