Tsunami Wave Interaction With Rigid And Flexible Vegetation: A 3D Large Eddy Simulation Study

With the aim to attenuate the tsunami wave impact, coastal communities are incorporating nature-based coastal mitigation parks in which protective benefits are combined with multiple other co-benefits. However, the complete understanding of the tsunami wave-vegetation interactions during tsunami run up and the quantification of energy dissipation for different vegetation parameters are still lacking. The current study, using a three dimensional incompressible Computational Fluid Dynamics model with a fluid-structure interaction approach, aims to analyze flow parameters and compute energy flux reflection and dissipation for uniform and random vegetation arrangement. A series of numerical experiments have also been performed with different elastic moduli to understand the role of flexible vegetation in tsunami energy dissipation and reflection. The present study also aims to analyze the boundary layer characteristics for different vegetation configurations by implementing wall-modeled large-eddy simulation. This complete study will be helpful to assess the protective role of vegetation in terms of energy reduction and prevention of beach erosion.