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Large eddy simulation of flow and scalar transport in a vegetated channel

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Abstract

Predicting flow and mass transport in vegetated regions has a broad range of applications in ecology and engineering practice. This paper presents large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flow and scalar transport within a fully developed open-channel with submerged vegetation. To properly represent the scalar transport, an additional diffusivity was introduced within the canopy to account for the contribution of stem wakes, which were not resolved by the LES, to turbulent diffusion. The LES produced good agreement with the velocity and concentration fields measured in a flume experiment. The simulation revealed a secondary flow distributed symmetrically about the channel centerline, which differed significantly from the circulation in a bare channel. The secondary circulation accelerated the vertical spread of the plume both within and above the canopy layer. Quadrant analysis was used to identify the form and shape of canopy-scale turbulent structures within and above the vegetation canopy. Within the canopy, sweep events contributed more to momentum transfer than ejection events, whereas the opposite occurred above the canopy. The coherent structures were similar to those observed in terrestrial canopies, but smaller in scale due to the constraint of the water surface.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 11132005 and 11322221, and by US National Science Foundation Grant No. AGS-1005480. The authors would also like to thank Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology for the support in parallel computing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Chao Yan, Wei-Xi Huang & Gui-Xiang Cui

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Heidi M. Nepf

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  1. Chao Yan
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  2. Heidi M. Nepf
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  3. Wei-Xi Huang
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  4. Gui-Xiang Cui
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Correspondence to Wei-Xi Huang.

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Yan, C., Nepf, H.M., Huang, WX. et al. Large eddy simulation of flow and scalar transport in a vegetated channel. Environ Fluid Mech 17, 497–519 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-016-9503-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-016-9503-y

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