CFD simulation of water flow - riparian vegetation interaction within a reclamation channel covered by rigid reed beds

Riparian vegetation in vegetated water bodies significantly modifies water flow turbulence features and global flow resistance, especially at real scale. The above effects sensibly affect the aquatic ecosystems developing within vegetated water bodies. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different riparian vegetation arrangements on Turbulent Kinetic Energy and Reynolds stresses cross sectional distributions, through real-scale 3D Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations of a real reclamation channel covered by rigid reed stems, based on the resolution of the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations, coupled with a k-epsilon turbulence closure model. The outcomes of each simulation, corresponding to each riparian vegetation arrangement, were analyzed and discussed to individuate the vegetation scenario that better simulate the actual hydrodynamic patterns within the reclamation channel. The results of this study constitute an advance to 3D model calibration of the key vegetational and hydrodynamic issues associated with real vegetated water bodies.