🌊 Interactive Wave Propagation Simulator using Clawpack

An interactive scientific simulation that models wave propagation in shallow water using numerical PDE solvers from Clawpack.

The project visualizes how disturbances in water propagate over time and allows users to interactively control simulation parameters through a Streamlit web interface.

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📌 Project Overview

This project simulates wave dynamics using the shallow water equations, which are widely used in computational fluid dynamics and geophysical modeling.

A disturbance is introduced in the water surface, and the simulation computes how the waves propagate outward using finite volume methods implemented in Clawpack.

Users can interactively modify simulation parameters and visualize the resulting wave patterns in real time.

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🚀 Key Features

• Numerical simulation using Clawpack PDE solvers
• Interactive simulation controls via Streamlit
• 3D visualization of water surface
• Adjustable simulation parameters:
  • Grid resolution
  • Disturbance strength
  • Simulation time
• Animated wave propagation
• Scientific computing workflow using Linux + Conda

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🧠 Scientific Background

The simulation uses the Shallow Water Equations (SWE):

• ∂h/∂t + ∇·(hu) = 0
• ∂(hu)/∂t + ∇·(hu² + ½gh²) = 0

Where:

Symbol	Meaning
h	Water height
u	Water velocity
g	Gravitational acceleration

These equations describe fluid flow where horizontal scales are much larger than vertical scales.

They are commonly used in:

• Tsunami simulation
• Ocean modeling
• Flood modeling
• Atmospheric modeling
• Hydrodynamics research

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🏗 System Architecture

        User Interface
             │
             │
     ┌───────▼────────┐
     │   Streamlit UI │
     │  Parameter UI  │
     └───────┬────────┘
             │
             │ user inputs
             ▼
     ┌─────────────────┐
     │ Simulation Core │
     │   (Clawpack)    │
     │  PDE Solver     │
     └───────┬─────────┘
             │
             │ simulation frames
             ▼
   ┌─────────────────────┐
   │ Visualization Layer │
   │  Matplotlib (3D)    │
   └─────────┬───────────┘
             │
             ▼
      Animated Wave Surface

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⚙️ Simulation Workflow

User sets simulation parameters │ ▼ Initialize shallow water domain │ ▼ Apply disturbance to water surface │ ▼ Clawpack solves PDE system │ ▼ Generate simulation frames │ ▼ Render 3D wave surface │ ▼ Display animated result in Streamlit

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🛠 Tech Stack

Technology	Purpose
Python	Programming language
Clawpack	Numerical PDE solver
NumPy	Numerical computation
Matplotlib	Scientific visualization
Streamlit	Interactive web interface
Conda	Environment management
WSL + Ubuntu	Linux environment for scientific libraries

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📂 Project Structure

ClawPack-Wave-Simulation
│
├── streamlit_app.py
│ Interactive Streamlit application for running the wave simulation
│
├── wave_simulation.py
│ Standalone script for running the wave simulation locally
│
├── generate_demo_gif.py
│ Script that generates an animated GIF of the simulation
│
├── demo_simulation/
│ └── demo.gif
│ Example animation showing wave propagation
│
├── requirements.txt
│ Python dependencies required to run the project
│
├── environment.yml
│ Conda environment configuration for reproducibility
│
└── README.md
│ Project documentation

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⚙️ Installation

1️⃣ Install WSL (Linux Environment)

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

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2️⃣ Install Miniconda

wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

Restart the terminal afterwards.

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3️⃣ Create Environment

conda create -n clawpack_env python=3.10

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4️⃣ Install Dependencies

conda install -c conda-forge clawpack
pip install numpy matplotlib streamlit

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▶️ Running the Simulation

Navigate to the project directory:

cd "/mnt/e/Projects/ClawPack - Wave Simulation"

Note: Make sure to customize the project directory path according to yours.

Activate the environment:

conda activate clawpack_env

Run the interactive app:

streamlit run streamlit_app.py

Open the browser at:

http://localhost:8501

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🎮 Using the Interactive Simulator

Users can control the following parameters:

Parameter	Description
Grid Resolution	Controls simulation accuracy
Disturbance Strength	Initial wave amplitude
Simulation Time	Duration of simulation

Press Run Simulation to visualize the wave propagation.

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📊 Example Simulation

Example visualization produced by the simulator:

The disturbance creates circular waves that propagate outward across the water surface.

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🔬 Applications

Wave simulations like this are used in:

• Tsunami prediction models
• Ocean wave forecasting
• Hydrodynamic research
• Climate and atmospheric simulations
• Computational fluid dynamics

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📈 Possible Future Improvements

This project can be extended with:

• Multiple disturbance points
• Wave interference patterns
• Real-time GPU acceleration
• Coastal boundary modeling
• Tsunami simulation scenarios
• Web deployment

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👨‍💻 Author

Shivam
Computer Science Student

Project developed as part of exploring scientific computing, numerical simulations, and interactive visualization.

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📚 References

Clawpack Documentation
https://www.clawpack.org

Streamlit Documentation
https://docs.streamlit.io

Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic PDEs