An official website of the United States government
Abstract Laboratory experiments explored the impact of vegetation patchiness on channel‐averaged turbulence and sediment transport. Stems were clustered into 16 randomly distributed circular patches of decreasing diameter. For the same channel velocity, the sediment transport increased with total stem number but decreased as stems were clustered into smaller patch diameters, occupying a smaller fraction of the bed area. The channel‐averaged turbulence, which also declined with increased clustering, was shown to be a good predictor for sediment transport at the channel scale. Previous models for uniform vegetation were adapted to predict both the channel‐averaged turbulence and sediment transport as a function of the total number of stems and degree of clustering, represented by the fraction of bed covered by patches. This provides a way for numerical modelers to represent the impact of subgrid‐scale vegetation patchiness on sediment transport.
more »
« less
Turbulence Dictates Bedload Transport in Vegetated Channels Without Dependence on Stem Diameter and Arrangement
Abstract Vegetation provides habitat and nature‐based solutions to coastal flooding and erosion, drawing significant interest in its restoration, which requires an understanding of sediment transport and retention. Laboratory experiments examined the influence of stem diameter and arrangement on bedload sediment transport by considering arrays of different stem diameter and mixed diameters. Bedload transport rate was observed to depend on turbulent kinetic energy, with no dependence on stem diameter, which was shown to be consistent with the impulse model for sediment entrainment. Existing predictors of bedload transport for bare beds, based on bed shear stress, were recast in terms of turbulence. The new turbulence‐based model predicted sediment transport measured in model canopies across a range of conditions drawn from several previous studies. A prediction of turbulence based on biomass and velocity was also described, providing an important step toward predicting turbulence and bedload transport in canopies of real vegetation morphology.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1854564
- PAR ID:
- 10366679
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Volume:
- 48
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 0094-8276
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Aquatic vegetation has the potential to increase suspended sediment capture while also increasing sediment resuspension and bedload transport. Suspended sediment can induce density stratification, which modulates the turbulence in the water column. We derive a Rouse‐based formulation for suspended sediment concentration (SSC) including the effect of sediment‐induced density stratification. We perform Large Eddy Simulations of vegetated and non‐vegetated channels to explicitly highlight the effect of stratification on SSC profiles. We found that the impact of stratification is dominant in the near‐bed region within the bottom boundary layer, affecting both sediment resuspension and bedload transport. Stratification reduces the likelihood of both dominant sweep and ejection events in the near the bed region which may affect sediment entrainment and bedload transport. Modifications to existing models of sediment entrainment and bedload transport are suggested to account for the effects of sediment induced stratification in vegetated and non‐vegetated channels.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Mean flow and turbulence measurements collected in a shallow Halodule wrightii shoal grass fringe highlighted significant heterogeneity in hydrodynamic effects over relatively small spatial scales. Experiments were conducted within the vegetation canopy (~4 cm above bottom) for relatively sparse (40% cover) and dense (70% cover) vegetation, with reference measurements collected near the bed above bare sediment. Significant benthic velocity shear was observed at all sample locations, with canopy shear layers that penetrated nearly to the bed at both vegetated sites. Turbulent shear production (P) was balanced by turbulent kinetic energy dissipation (ϵ) at all sample locations (P/ϵ≈1), suggesting that stem-generated turbulence played a minor role in the overall turbulence budget. While the more sparsely vegetated sample site was associated with enhanced channel-to-shore velocity attenuation (71.4 ± 1.0%) relative to flows above bare sediment (51.7 ± 2.2%), unexpectedly strong cross-shore currents were observed nearshore in the dense canopy (VNS), with magnitudes that were nearly twice as large as those measured in the main channel (VCH; VNS/VCH¯ = 1.81 ± 0.08). These results highlight the importance of flow steering and acceleration for within- and across-canopy transport, especially at the scale of individual vegetation patches, with important implications for nutrient and sediment fluxes. Importantly, this work represents one of the first hydrodynamic studies of shoal grass fringes in shallow coastal estuaries, as well as one of the only reports of turbulent mixing within H. wrightii canopies.more » « less
-
Abstract Aquatic vegetation plays an important role in natural water environments by interacting with the flow and generating turbulence that affects the air‐water and sediment‐water interfacial transfer. Regular and staggered arrays are often set as simplified layouts for vegetation canopy to study both mean flow and turbulence statistics in vegetated flows, which creates uniform spacing between vegetation elements, resulting in preferential flow paths within the array. Such preferential paths can produce local high velocity and strong turbulence, which do not necessarily happen in natural environments where vegetation is randomly distributed. How the randomness of the canopy affects interfacial processes by altering spatial turbulence distribution, which can potentially lead to different turbulence feedback on the interfacial transfer process, remains an open question. This study conducted a series of laboratory experiments in a race‐track flume using rigid cylinders as plant surrogates. Mean and turbulent flow statistics were characterized by horizontal‐ and vertical‐sliced PIV. Based on the measured flow characteristics under different stem diameters and array configurations, we propose a method to quantify the randomness of the vegetation array and update a sediment‐water‐air interfacial gas transfer model with the randomness parameter to improve its accuracy. The updated model agrees well with the dissolved oxygen experimental data from our study and data from existing literature at various scales. The study provides critical insight into water quality management in vegetated channels with improved dissolved oxygen predictions considering vegetation layout as part of the interfacial transfer model.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract: A volume-penalization immersed boundary (VPIB) method was developed to study flow interactions with aquatic vegetation. The model has been validated with data from laboratory experiments and previous high-fidelity models with satisfactory results. Sensitivity analyzes on both penalty parameter and thickness parameter were conducted, and optimal values for these parameters are recommended. The validated model has been applied to study the effects of swaying motion of vegetation stems on the flow dynamics at both vegetate-stem scale and patch scale. The swaying motion of the vegetation stem is prescribed following a cubic law that peaks at the top and decreases to zero at the bottom. At stem-scale, the hydrodynamics depend on the Keulegan Carpenter number (KC), which is defined as the maximum excursion of the vegetation stem to the diameter of the stem. Simulations with three KC values were carried out. For KC≥1, the flow turbulence is significantly enhanced by the swaying motion of the stem, and turbulence becomes more isotropic in the wake. The swaying motion of vegetation stems caused a 5% increase of the bottom shear stress at the shoulders of the stem, and the effect is negligible in the wake. At patch-scale, the hydrodynamics depend on the effective Keulegan Carpenter number based on the patch size of the vegetation patch, and the solid volume fraction for dense vegetation canopy. Solid volume fraction was varied while maintaining the same effective Keulegan Carpenter in the simulations. When the effective Keulgen Carpenter number is small (KC<1), effects of the swaying motion of vegetation stems on the large patch-scale dynamics are not significant, including both the turbulence statistics and the bottom stress.more » « less
