Experimental study on the effects of artificial vegetation density on forehead of saline current flow

Gravity current is one of the most important factors in the deposition and reservoirs useful life reducing. The progressive section (forehead of gravity current) is an important part of this process which is influenced by many factors. In the present research, behavior of the forehead of saline density currents flowing over artificial vegetation was studied by conducting experiments. Velocity and concentration profiles were measured for different flow sections. Artificial vegetation was placed along the flow direction with 2 heights and 5 different densities. The results show that increasing artificial vegetation density causes decrease of the gravity current velocity 13–28.5 % and the concentration is reduced 53.5–82%, respectively, compared with smooth bed currents and there for the most effective artificial vegetation density in this work 1.4% can be concluded.