Numerical investigation of wave attenuation by vegetation using a 3D RANS model

Vegetation has been recognized as an important natural shoreline protection against storm surges and waves. Understanding of wave-vegetation interaction is essential for assessing the ability of vegetation patches, such as wetlands, to mitigate storm damages. In this study the wave attenuation by vegetation is investigated numerically using a 3-D model which solves the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) by means of a finite-volume method based on collocated hexahedron mesh. A mixing length model is used for turbulence closure of the RANS equations. The water surface boundary is tracked using the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method with the Compressive Interface Capturing Scheme for Arbitrary Meshes (CICSAM) to solve the VOF advection equation. The presence of vegetation is taken into account by adding the vegetation drag and inertia forces to the momentum equations. The model is validated by several laboratory experiments of short wave propagation through vegetation over flat and sloping beds. The comparisons show good agreement between the measured data and calculated results, but the swaying motion of flexible vegetation which is neglected in this study can influence the accuracy of the wave height predictions. The model is then applied to one of the validation tests with different vegetation properties, revealing that the wave height attenuation by vegetation depends not only on the wave conditions, but also the vegetation characteristics such as vegetation height and density.