Author(s): Anne Mozer; Harish Selvam; Holger Schuttrumpf

Linked Author(s): Anne Mozer

Keywords: Ir-water flow; Vegetation; Hydraulic modeling; Spillways

Abstract: Vegetated spillways provide a nature-based alternative to conventional concrete structures, like stepped spillways. Water rushing down vegetated spillways is usually highly aerated, resulting in significant energy loss. Thus, the influence of aeration and vegetation needs to be understood for an efficient design of vegetated spillways. A few studies focussed on vegetated spillways, while some utilized artificial vegetation to replace natural vegetation during physical model tests. However, it is necessary to check whether the artificial vegetation mimics the natural vegetation in air-water flows. The present study compared the aeration parameters of two experiments, one conducted with natural and the other with artificial vegetation of vegetation heights of approximately 3 cm each. Both experiments were conducted in the same flume using the same flow conditions. Conductivity probes were used to measure the air content in the flows. The comparison showed that the vegetation types differ in bending behaviour and friction resistance. However, the air content was in equal ranges for lower flow rates, leading to the conclusion that natural vegetation can be replaced with artificial vegetation, especially for low flow rates.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64697/978-90-835589-7-4_41WC-P2027-cd

Year: 2025