Resumen: The two-layer problem is defined as the coexistence of two immiscible fluids, separated by an interface surface. Under the shallow-flow hypothesis, 1D models are based on a four equations system accounting for the mass and momentum conservation in each fluid layer. Mathematically, the system of conservation laws modelling 1D two-layer flows has the important drawback of loss of hyperbolicity, causing that numerical schemes based on the eigenvalues of the Jacobian become unstable. In this work, well-balanced FORCE scheme is proposed for 1D two-layer shallow flows. The FORCE scheme combines the first-order Lax-Friedrichs flux and the second-order Lax-Wendroff flux. The scheme is supplemented with a hydrostatic reconstruction procedure in order to ensure the well-balanced behaviour of the model for steady flows even under wet-dry conditions. Additionally, a method to obtain high-accuracy numerical solutions for two-layer steady flows including friction dissipation is proposed to design reference benchmark tests for model validation. The enhanced FORCE scheme is faced to lake-at-rest benchmarking tests and steady flow cases including friction, demonstrating its well-balanced character. Furthermore, the numerical results obtained for highly unsteady two-layer dambreaks are used to analyse the robustness and accuracy of the model under a wide range of flow conditions. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.2166/hydro.2020.002 Año: 2020 Publicado en: JOURNAL OF HYDROINFORMATICS 22, 5 (2020), 1015-1037 ISSN: 1464-7141 Factor impacto JCR: 2.376 (2020) Categ. JCR: COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS rank: 68 / 111 = 0.613 (2020) - Q3 - T2 Categ. JCR: WATER RESOURCES rank: 59 / 97 = 0.608 (2020) - Q3 - T2 Categ. JCR: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES rank: 182 / 273 = 0.667 (2020) - Q3 - T3 Categ. JCR: ENGINEERING, CIVIL rank: 72 / 136 = 0.529 (2020) - Q3 - T2 Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 0.654 - Atmospheric Science (Q2) - Water Science and Technology (Q2) - Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology (Q2) - Civil and Structural Engineering (Q2)