Author(s): Ahmed Yahyaoui; Damien Violeau; Thomas Fonty; Olivier Simonin; Gerald Debenest; George Constantinescu

Linked Author(s): Olivier Simonin, George Constantinescu

Keywords: Array of cylinders; CFD; Code_saturne; Head loss; Porous medium

Abstract: Urban and industrial water intake systems must ensure a continuous and reliable supply of clean water. This operation is frequently challenged by the accumulation of aquatic vegetation transported by floods or other environmental processes. Such vegetation tends to pile up against protective trash racks, progressively reducing their effective opening and inducing additional head losses, which can impair both the efficiency and safety of intake facilities [12]. To investigate the impact of vegetation accumulation on the hydraulic behavior of the flow, a two-dimensional numerical study is conducted using the CFD software code_saturne developed by EDF R&D. The vegetated zone is modeled as a porous region composed of an array of rigid cylindrical obstacles, and the resulting freesurface variations along the porous section are analyzed. These results are then compared with those obtained using the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer porous-media model available in code_saturne. The comparison shows a strong agreement between the two modeling approaches, indicating that the Darcy– Brinkman–Forchheimer formulation can reliably reproduce the main hydraulic effects of vegetation accumulation. This supports its applicability for modeling diphasic free-surface flows through vegetated intake regions.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64697/iahr.proc.hic2026.157

Year: 2026