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Damien VIOLEAU

Professeur, Chercheur Senior LHSV

Hired by EDF on 1997, May the 1rst

Education

  • Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées 1996
  • 'Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches' 2010

Fields of interest

  • SPH method (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics)
  • Turbulent flows
  • Water waves
  • Water works

Current research

  • Dispersive, nonlinear water waves
  • Complex porous flows
  • Numerical properties of the SPH method

Teaching

  • Ecole des Ponts ParisTech: Professor, course on Incompressible Fluid Mechanics
  • Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris-Saclay: in charge of the course on Incompressible Fluid Mechanics
  • Ecole des Ponts ParisTech: Professor, course on SPH

Awards

  • Arthur Thomas Ippen Award 2015
  • Listed among the Top 2% World scientists in 2020 by a team of scientists at Stanford University
  • 16 PhD students awards

Communities

  • IAHR: active member, IAHR Fellow
  • SPHERIC: Steering Commitee member

Supervision

  • Bastien Jouy
  • Coline De Sousa

Publications

  • Wave overtopping of rock-armored breakwaters in bimodal long-crested sea state conditions
    • Villefer Antoine
    • Violeau Damien
    • Teles Maria João
    • Luneau Christopher
    • Benoit Michel
    Coastal Engineering Journal, World Scientific Publishing , 2026, pp.1-17 . The mean wave overtopping rate is an essential parameter to design coastal protections. Estimating it with a high precision is primordial to find a balance between a satisfactory safety level and a limited impact on the environment and construction costs. A series of laboratory experiments was conducted in a wave flume to estimate the wave overtopping discharge over a rock-armored breakwater in bimodal sea state conditions (combining swell and wind waves). Both simulated swell and wind wave systems were long-crested and colinear. Preliminary tests were performed on a smooth breakwater to validate the experimental set-up. Some trends in the results with the smooth slope can be characterized by the representative wave steepness. These trends are confirmed and amplified in the presence of the armor rubble slope. In that case, the measured wave overtopping rate can be significantly overestimated by existing prediction formulas, especially for sea state conditions with a high representative wave steepness, corresponding to a high wind-wave proportion in the sea state energy. We suggest two methods to take into account the effect of sea-state bimodality via the representative wave steepness to improve the wave overtopping rate estimations for smooth and armored rubble breakwaters. (10.1080/21664250.2026.2638069)
    DOI : 10.1080/21664250.2026.2638069
  • SPH modelling of water flow inside a fixed and undeformable porous medium using a Riemann based formulation
    • de Sousa Coline
    • Lallemand Marin
    • Oger Guillaume
    • Michel Julien
    • Le Touzé David
    • Violeau Damien
    Journal of Computational Physics, Elsevier , 2026, 549, pp.114588 . A weakly-compressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model for the simulation of water seepage in a fixed and undeformable porous matrix is proposed in this paper. Within this model, the macroscopic governing equations of mass and momentum are expressed using an averaging process on an elementary volume of porous medium. A first set of particles is used for modelling the fluid, while a second one is employed for the porous structure to compute the volume fraction involved in the volume-averaged equations. The stabilization of the fluid model, based on a Riemann solver, is free of any diffusion parameter and results in regular and accurate pressure fields. Moreover, a Boundary Integral Method is chosen in this work to handle wall boundary conditions, with use of the so-called Español and Revenga laplacian operator. To the authors’ knowledge, both this stabilization and wall treatment technique have never been applied yet to this field of application. The validation of the present model on three test-cases demonstrates its strong reliability, showing good agreement with numerical and experimental results from the literature. (10.1016/j.jcp.2025.114588)
    DOI : 10.1016/j.jcp.2025.114588
  • SPH modelling of water flow inside a porous medium using a Riemann based formulation
    • de Sousa Coline
    • Oger Guillaume
    • Michel Julien
    • Le Touzé David
    • Violeau Damien
    , 2025 . Simulating granular flows has been a major concern for the past decades, with various environmental applications such as avalanches, landslides and scour near fluvial, coastal and off- shore constructions. These phenomena involve a porous matrix undergoing large deformations and characterized by a complex behaviour. Thanks to its ability to handle large deformations of the medium, SPH appears as a particularly advantageous method to deal with these problems. Various SPH schemes already exist to model the granular medium behaviour, such as the ones developed by Feng et al. [1], Bui and Nguyen [2] (elastoplastic approach) or Gha¨ıtanellis [3] (elasto-viscoplastic approach). However, to the authors’ knowledge, none of these papers show in their results what the water flow looks like inside the porous structure while it deforms. Consequently, the present work aims at presenting a model to simulate the deformation of a granular medium as well as its infiltration by water. The porous structure is unsaturated and is considered as a continuous medium. Infiltrated water flows according to Darcy’s or Darcy- Forchheimer’s laws. Two different sets of particles are used for this purpose, one for the water phase and an other one for the porous structure, as done by Shimizu et al [4]. Riemann- based schemes have never been used yet for such purpose, though it proved to give accurate results for both fluid [6] and solid mechanics [7]. As a consequence, a new approach is proposed here by applying Riemann-based formulations on both fluid and solid media. For the moment, the proposed model is not yet finished developing and only simulations with undeformable porous matrix are available for the writing of this abstract. Results with moving, deformable porous matrix will be presented during the conference.
  • Experimental and numerical characterization of swell type waves effect on wind sea growth with fetch
    • Villefer Antoine
    • Benoit Michel
    • Violeau Damien
    • Teles Maria João
    • Harris Jeffrey C.
    • Branger Hubert
    • Luneau Christopher
    , 2021 .
  • Influence of swell on wind-wave growth with fetch: an experimental and numerical study
    • Villefer Antoine
    • Teles Maria João
    • Benoit Michel
    • Violeau Damien
    • Harris Jeffrey C.
    • Branger Hubert
    , 2021 .
  • Simulating wave overtopping on a complex coastal structure using SPH
    • Mokos Athanasios
    • Carmigniani Rémi
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Violeau Damien
    Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research, Taylor & Francis Online , 2020, 8 (1), pp.55-65 . (10.1080/23249676.2020.1719221)
    DOI : 10.1080/23249676.2020.1719221
  • Simulating wave overtopping on a complex coastal structure using SPH
    • Mokos Athanasios
    • Carmigniani Rémi
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Violeau Damien
    Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research, Taylor & Francis Online , 2020, 8 (1), pp.55-65 . (10.1080/23249676.2020.1719221)
    DOI : 10.1080/23249676.2020.1719221
  • Calculating the smoothing error in SPH
    • Violeau Damien
    • Fonty Thomas
    Computers and Fluids, Elsevier , 2019, 191, pp.104240 . (10.1016/j.compfluid.2019.104240)
    DOI : 10.1016/j.compfluid.2019.104240
  • Flow and detailed 3D morphodynamic data from laboratory experiments of fluvial dike breaching
    • Rifai Ismail
    • El Kadi Abderrezzak Kamal
    • Erpicum Sébastien
    • Archambeau Pierre
    • Violeau Damien
    • Pirotton Michel
    • Dewals Benjamin
    Scientific Data, Nature Publishing Group , 2019, 6 (1), pp.53 . This paper presents a dataset obtained from fifty four laboratory experiments of the breaching of fluvial dikes due to flow overtopping. Data were collected on two complementary experimental setups, each consisting of a main channel representing the river, an erodible lateral dike and a floodplain. The dataset covers seven test series, involving varying hydraulic boundary conditions ( e . g . inflow discharge, downstream boundary conditions), main channel dimensions, as well as bottom and dike material. The following experimental data were produced: time series of water levels in the main channel, time series of flow discharges in the main channel and through the breach, as well as high resolution 3D reconstructions of the breach geometry during its expansion. The latter measurements were performed using a novel non-intrusive laser profilometry technique developed for this research. Reuse of the collected data will support efforts to improve our understanding of the physical processes underpinning fluvial dike breaching. It will also enable benchmarking the accuracy of conceptual or detailed numerical models for the prediction of dike breaching, which is central to flood risk management. (10.1038/s41597-019-0057-y)
    DOI : 10.1038/s41597-019-0057-y
  • Mixture model for two-phase flows with high density ratios: A conservative and realizable SPH formulation
    • Fonty Thomas
    • Ferrand Martin
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Joly Antoine
    • Violeau Damien
    International Journal of Multiphase Flow, Elsevier , 2019, 111, pp.158-174 . (10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2018.11.007)
    DOI : 10.1016/j.ijmultiphaseflow.2018.11.007
  • A simple SPH model of a free surface water wave pump: waves above a submerged plate
    • Carmigniani Rémi
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Violeau Damien
    Coastal Engineering Journal, World Scientific Publishing , 2019, 61 (1), pp.96-108 . (10.1080/21664250.2018.1560923)
    DOI : 10.1080/21664250.2018.1560923
  • Air Entrainment Modeling in the SPH Method: A Two-Phase Mixture Formulation with Open Boundaries
    • Fonty Thomas
    • Ferrand Martin
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Violeau Damien
    Flow, Turbulence and Combustion, Springer Verlag , 2018 . (10.1007/s10494-020-00165-7)
    DOI : 10.1007/s10494-020-00165-7
  • Shallow water numerical models for the 1947 gisborne and 2011 Tohoku-Oki tsunamis with kinematic seismic generation
    • Le Gal Marine
    • Violeau Damien
    • Ata Riadh
    • Wang Xiaoming
    Coastal Engineering, Elsevier , 2018, 139, pp.1-15 .
  • Optimal sponge layer for water waves numerical models
    • Carmigniani Rémi Arthur
    • Violeau Damien
    Ocean Engineering, Elsevier , 2018, 163, pp.169-182 .
  • Optimal sponge layer for water waves numerical models
    • Carmigniani Rémi Arthur
    • Violeau Damien
    Ocean Engineering, Elsevier , 2018, 163, pp.169-182 .
  • Dam spillways and the SPH method: two case studies in Portugal
    • Moreira Andreia
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Violeau Damien
    • Taveira-Pinto Francisco
    Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research, Taylor & Francis Online , 2018, 7 (3), pp.228-245 . (10.1080/23249676.2019.1611496)
    DOI : 10.1080/23249676.2019.1611496
  • Spectral properties of the SPH Laplacian operator
    • Violeau Damien
    • Leroy Agnès
    • Joly Antoine
    • Hérault Alexis
    Computers & Mathematics with Applications, Elsevier , 2018 . (10.1016/j.camwa.2018.02.023)
    DOI : 10.1016/j.camwa.2018.02.023
  • Influence of timescales on the generation of seismic tsunamis
    • Le Gal Marine
    • Violeau Damien
    • Benoit Michel
    European Journal of Mechanics - B/Fluids, Elsevier , 2017, 65, pp.257 - 273 . (10.1016/j.euromechflu.2017.03.008)
    DOI : 10.1016/j.euromechflu.2017.03.008
  • Overtopping induced failure of noncohesive, homogeneous fluvial dikes
    • Rifai Ismail
    • Erpicum Sébastien
    • Archambeau Pierre
    • Violeau Damien
    • Pirotton Michel
    • El Kadi Abderrezzak Kamal
    • Dewals Benjamin J.
    Water Resources Research, American Geophysical Union , 2017, 53 (4), pp.3373 - 3386 . (10.1002/2016WR020053)
    DOI : 10.1002/2016WR020053
  • Resonance wave pumping with surface waves
    • Carmigniani Rémi Arthur
    • Benoit Michel
    • Violeau Damien
    • Gharib Morteza
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Cambridge University Press (CUP) , 2017, 811, pp.1 - 36 . (10.1017/jfm.2016.720)
    DOI : 10.1017/jfm.2016.720
  • Unsteady open boundaries for SPH using semi-analytical conditions and Riemann solver in 2D
    • Ferrand Martin
    • Joly Antoine
    • Kassiotis Christophe D
    • Violeau Damien
    • Leroy Agnès D
    • Morel François-Xavier
    • Rogers Benedict D
    , 2016 . Due to the Lagrangian nature of SPH, treating inlet/outlet boundaries (that are intrinsically Eulerian) is a challenging issue. An extension to the Unified Semi-Analytical boundary conditions is presented to deal with unsteady open boundaries in confined and free-surface flows. The presented method uses Riemann invariants to calculate flow properties near the open boundaries, thus allowing the possibility to treat complex shapes. Furthermore, details are presented for a parallel implementation of this method, including particle creation and deletion , updating properties of vertices and segments, and additional constraints on the time step. Simple validation cases are then displayed to illustrate the performance of the proposed method as well as the ability to deal with complex problems such as generation of water waves and free outlets.
  • Applying Riemann solvers to open boundaries in free surface and confined flows
    • Joly Antoine
    • Violeau Damien
    • Leroy Agnès D
    • Ferrand Martin
    , 2016 . Due to the Lagrangian nature of SPH, dealing with open boundaries (which are intrinsically Eulerian) is a challenging issue. This issue has recently been addressed in the Unified Semi-Analytical Boundaries framework [1], where it has been shown how to properly deal with mass fluxes at the open boundaries. However imposing both velocities and pressures on the open boundaries will over-constrain the problem, and in most cases only one of these quantities will be known. Therefore, Riemann Solvers can be used to calculate and prescribe compatible fields at the open boundaries. These compatible fields allow therefore complex boundary conditions to be imposed.
  • Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) for free-surface flows: past, present and future
    • Violeau Damien
    • Rogers Benedict D.
    Journal of Hydraulic Research, Taylor & Francis , 2016, 54 (1), pp.1 - 26 . (10.1080/00221686.2015.1119209)
    DOI : 10.1080/00221686.2015.1119209
  • A database of validation cases for tsunami numerical modelling
    • Violeau Damien
    • Ata Riadh
    • Benoit Michel
    • Joly Antoine
    • Abadie Stéphane
    • Clous Lucie
    • Martin Medina Manuel
    • Morichon Denis
    • Chicheportiche Jérémie
    • Le Gal Marine
    • Gailler A.
    • Hebert Hélène
    • Imbert David
    • Kazolea Maria
    • Ricchiuto Mario
    • Le Roy Sylvestre
    • Pedreros Rodrigo
    • Rousseau Marie
    • Pons Kévin
    • Marcer Richard
    • Journeau Camille
    • Silva Jacinto R.
    , 2016 . This work has been performed by a French national consortium within the framework of the national project Tandem, with aim to improve knowledge about tsunami risk on the French coasts. Workpackage #1 of this project was the opportunity to build a database of benchmark cases to assess the capabilities of 18 codes, solving various set of equations with different numerical methods. 14 test cases were defined from the existing literature with validation data from reference simulations, theoretical solutions or lab experiments. They cover the main stages of tsunami life: 1) generation, 2) propagation, 3) run-up and submersion, and 4) impact. For each case several of the numerical codes were compared in order to identify the forces and weaknesses of the models, to quantify the errors that these models may induce, to compare the various modelling methods, and to provide users with recommendations for practical studies. In this paper, 3 representative cases are selected and presented with an analysis of the results.
  • Unified semi-analytical wall boundary conditions in SPH: analytical extension to 3-D
    • Mayrhofer Arno
    • Ferrand Martin
    • Kassiotis Christophe
    • Violeau Damien
    • Morel François-Xavier
    Numerical Algorithms, Springer Verlag , 2015, 68 (1) . (10.1007/s11075-014-9835-y)
    DOI : 10.1007/s11075-014-9835-y