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Experimental analysis of flow and turbulence in the wake of neighboring emergent vegetation patches with different densities

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Abstract

Patches of vegetation in natural water bodies grow close to each other and may affect each other’s wake pattern with significant implications on nutrient uptake and local sediment transport. This experimental study analyzed the wakes of two neighboring circular patches of emergent artificial vegetation with different densities, with the tested solid volume fractions being equal to 0.059, 0.114, and 0.188. The neighboring patches were positioned in two different configurations, namely side-by-side (\(L/D=0\) and \(T/D=1.5\)) and staggered (\(L/D=3.5\) and \(T/D=1.5\)) configurations, with D, L, and T denoting the patch diameter, the patches center-to-center longitudinal distance, and the patches center-to-center transverse distance, respectively. Results show that neighboring patches with different densities generated two distinctly different wakes at the near downstream while after 7–10D these two wakes started merging into one. The flow immediately downstream of a patch was not significantly affected by the presence of a neighboring patch and remained similar to that of an isolated patch, besides the wake of the upstream patch in staggered configuration, which was significantly affected by the downstream patch. The solid volume fraction of the neighboring patch determined the flow velocity and turbulence intensity in between the patches, which were much different compared to measurements at the side of an isolated patch.

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Acknowledgements

Vasileios Kitsikoudis acknowledges financial support for postdoctoral research from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey—TUBITAK 2216 (Ref. No. 21514107-115.02-45898) and from Istanbul Technical University Scientific Research Projects Units (ITU-BAP)—Postdoctoral Research Support. The authors are grateful to Isilsu Yildirim and to ITU Hydraulics Laboratory technicians Mevlut Ulucinar, Hasan Yalcin, and Yasar Aktas for their assistance with the experiments.

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  1. Vasileios Kitsikoudis

    Present address: Hydraulics in Environmental and Civil Engineering, Urban and Environmental Engineering, Liege University, 4000, Liege, Belgium

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  1. Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Vasileios Kitsikoudis

  2. Division of Hydraulics, Civil Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University, 34467, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey

    Oral Yagci & V. S. Ozgur Kirca

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Kitsikoudis, V., Yagci, O. & Kirca, V.S.O. Experimental analysis of flow and turbulence in the wake of neighboring emergent vegetation patches with different densities. Environ Fluid Mech 20, 1417–1439 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-020-09746-6

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