The importance of riparian plant orientation in river flow: implications for flow structures and drag

Boothroyd, RJ ORCID: 0000-0001-9742-4229, Hardy, RJ, Warburton, J and Marjoribanks, TI ORCID: 0000-0003-0116-2952 (2018) The importance of riparian plant orientation in river flow: implications for flow structures and drag Journal of Ecohydraulics, 3 (2). pp. 108-129. ISSN 2470-5357, 2470-5365

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Abstract

In a series of high resolution numerical modelling experiments, we incorporated submerged riparian plants into a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model used to predict flow structures and drag in river flow. Individual plant point clouds were captured using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and geometric characteristics quantified. In the first experiment, flow is modelled around three different plant specimens of the same species (Prunus laurocerasus). In the second experiment, the orientation of another specimen is incrementally rotated to modify the flow-facing structure when foliated and defoliated. Each plant introduces a unique disturbance pattern to the normalized downstream velocity field, resulting in spatially heterogeneous and irregularly shaped velocity profiles. The results question the extent to which generalized velocity profiles can be quantified for morphologically complex plants. Incremental changes in plant orientation introduce gradual changes to the downstream velocity field and cause a substantial range in the quantified drag response. Form drag forces are up to an order of magnitude greater for foliated plants compared to defoliated plants, although the mean drag coefficient for defoliated plants is higher (1.52 defoliated; 1.03 foliated). Variation in the drag coefficients is greatest when the plant is defoliated (up to ∼210% variation when defoliated, ∼80% when foliated).

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	4012 Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering, 40 Engineering
Divisions:	Faculty of Science & Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2023 07:37
Last Modified:	22 May 2026 16:55
DOI:	10.1080/24705357.2019.1573648
Open Access URL:	https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JF005012
Related Websites:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3172053
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