Uniform laminar wetland flow through submerged and floating plants

Abstract

Wetland flow is currently actively studied because of its applications in stormwater management, wastewater treatment and habitat restoration. This research applies the well-established poroelastic media flow theory to uniform laminar wetland flow through submerged and floating vegetation, where the linear interaction between the pore water and the vegetation skeleton is considered in the equations of motion. The effects of vegetation porosity on the velocity, the shear stress and the energy distributions in different layers are first derived analytically and interpreted graphically and physically. As special cases, the homogeneous water flow, as also floating, submerged and emergent vegetation flows are then discussed. This research provides qualitative understanding of wetland flow on velocity, shear stress and energy distributions, indicating that a plant applies a significant resistance to the flow system and dissipates most of the flow energy. The results serve a benchmark framework for the future study on turbulent vegetation flow.