  There is growing interest in developing mathematical models and appropriate
numerical methods for problems involving networks formed by, essentially,
one-dimensional (1D) domains joined by junctions. Examples include hyperbolic
equations in networks of gas tubes, water channels and vessel networks for
blood and lymph in the human circulatory system. A key point in designing
numerical methods for such applications is the treatment of junctions, i.e.
points at which two or more 1D domains converge and where the flow exhibits
multidimensional behaviour. This paper focuses on the design of methods for
networks of water channels. Our methods adopt the finite volume approach to
make full use of the two-dimensional shallow water equations on the true
physical domain, locally at junctions, while solving the usual one-dimensional
shallow water equations away from the junctions. In addition to mass
conservation, our methods enforce conservation of momentum at junctions; the
latter seems to be the missing element in methods currently available. Apart
from simplicity and robustness, the salient feature of the proposed methods is
their ability to successfully deal with transcritical and supercritical flows
at junctions, a property not enjoyed by existing published methodologies.
Systematic assessment of the proposed methods for a variety of flow
configurations is carried out. The methods are directly applicable to other
systems, provided the multidimensional versions of the 1D equations are
available.
