Numerical investigation of the dynamics of flexible vegetations in turbulent open-channel flows

Aquatic vegetations widely exist in natural rivers and play an essential role in the evolution of the water environment and ecosystem by changing the river’s hydrodynamic characteristics and transporting sediments and nutrition.In reality,most aquatic vegetations are highly flexible,which invalidates the“rigid-cylinder”assumption widely adopted in many literatures.To explore the dynamics of submerged flexible vegetation in open-channel flows and its feedback to turbulent flow structures,numerical simulations are carried out using an in-house fluid-structure interaction(FSI)solver.In the simulations,the geometry of vegetation plants is grid-resolved,the turbulent flow is simulated using the large eddy simulation(LES),the dynamics of the flexible plants are solved using the vector form intrinsic finite element(VFIFE)method,and the turbulent flow and the plants are two-way coupled using the immersed boundary(IB)method.The dynamic responses of the flexible vegetation with different plant flexibility,spacing,and submergence are investigated.Simulation results show that flexible plants are subjected to complex flow-induced vibrations(FIVs)rather than static bending.The FIV involves both streamwise and cross-flow motions driven by the small-scale vortex shedding around the plants and the large-scale Kelvin-Helmholtz(K-H)vortices developed in the vegetation canopy layer.The vegetations exhibit pulsive wave motion of different patterns in relatively long and narrow open channels.Compared with the open-channel flows with static plants with equivalent bending deformation,the dynamic responses of flexible plants may increase the turbulent Reynolds stress of the open-channel flow by 70%–100%and increase the invasion depth of the K-H vortices by 30%–50%.

Flow Structure and Short-Term Riverbed Evolution in Curved Flumes

River bending is the major effect responsible for bed topography and bank changes.In this study,fluid velocity(measured by a three-dimensional Doppler advanced point current meter)and bed topographical data have been collected in 40 sections of an experimental model.The whole flume was composed of an organic glass bend,upstream and downstream water tanks,two transition straight sections,a circulation pump,and a connection pipeline.Each section has been found to be characterized by a primary circulation and a small reverse circulation,with some sections even presenting three more or more circulation structures.The minimum circulation intensity has been detected in proximity to the top of the curved channel,while a region with small longitudinal velocity has been observed near the concave bank of each bend,corresponding to the flat bed formed after a short period of scouring.The maximum sediment deposition and scour depth in the presence of a uniform distribution of living flexible vegetation within 10 cm of the flume wall have been found to be smaller than those observed in the tests conducted without vegetation.

Numerical study of submerged bending vegetation under unidirectional flow

Submerged vegetation commonly grows and plays a vital role in aquatic ecosystems,but it is also regarded as a barrier to the passing flow.Numerical simulations of flow through and over submerged vegetation were carried out to investigate the effect of vegetation density on flow field.Numerical simulations were computationally set up to replicate flume experiments,in which vegetation was mimicked with flexible plastic strips.The fluid-structure interaction between flow and flexible vegetation was solved by coupling the two modules of the COMSOL packages.Two cases with different vegetation densities were simulated,and the results were successfully validated against the experimental data.The contours of the simulated time-averaged streamwise velocity and Reynolds stress were extracted to highlight the differences in mean and turbulent flow statistics.The turbulence intensity was found to be more sensitive to vegetation density than the time-averaged velocity.The developing length increased with the spacing between plants.The snapshots of the bending vegetation under instantaneous velocity and vorticity revealed that flexible vegetation responded to the effects of eddies in the shear layer by swaying periodically.The first two rows of vegetation suffered stronger approaching flow and were prone to more streamlined postures.In addition,the origin of tip vortices was investigated via the distribution of vorticity.The results reveal the variation of flow properties with bending submerged vegetation and provide useful reference for optimizationofrestorationprojects.