3D turbulence model for the flow and sediment transport with aquatic vegetation

Aquatic vegetation plays an important role in the flow structure in open channels and thus changes the fate and transport of sediment. This paper proposes a 3D turbulence model, introducing vegetation density and drag force to the control equations of water flow with vegetation. The impacts of submerged vegetation on the vertical profiles of horizontal flow velocities, the changes of the depth-averaged flow velocities in a compound channel with emergent vegetation in the floodplain, and the bed surface topography changes around and in a vegetation island are calculated by the model. The calculated results show a good agreement with experimental results.