Lateral Distributions of Depth-Averaged Velocity in Compound Channels with Submerged Vegetated Floodplains

Abstract

Lateral distributions of depth-averaged velocity in open compound channels with submerged vegetated floodplains are analyzed, based on an analytical solution to the depth-integrated Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equation with a term included to account for the effects of vegetation. The cases of open channels are: rectangular channel with submerged vegetated corner, and compound channel with submerged vegetated floodplain. The present paper proposes a method for predicting lateral distribution of the depth-averaged velocity with submerged vegetated floodplains. The method is based on a two-layer approach where flow above and through the vegetation layer is described separately. An experiment in compound channel with submerged vegetated floodplain is carried out for the present research. The analytical solutions of the three cases are compared with experimental data. The corresponding analytical depth-averaged velocity distributions show good agreement with the experimental data.