FLOW ANALYSIS OF RIGID AND FLEXIBLE VEGETATION USING ANSYS FLUENT

Abstract

Vegetation can be described as the collection of plant gathering, acting as a covering to the ground or the surface or banks of river. Even though the capacity of flow in the river can be improvised by completely or partially removing the vegetation, these experiments can help in identifying the hike in sediment loads that are carried by the flowing water. If obstructions are not created in the path of such growing vegetation then it might result in severe damage to hydraulic capacity. In the present study, we have performed the required experiment and verified the results by software, ANSYS FLUENT. In conducting the experiment for studying the flow in the presence of vegetation in a rectangular channel, we have used flume apparatus. The size of the flume is 6.18 m* 0.3m* 0.4m along with the size of vegetation as 6mm in diameter and 10cm in length. For rigid vegetation we have used an iron rod and an electrical wire for flexible one and in order to fulfil the energy requirements we have used a hydraulic pump of 10hp. The results showed that the Reynold’s Number obtained was seen highest for 0.4 m/s velocity for flexible vegetation, as high as 5955.8 confirming turbulence at highest discharge unlike for rigid vegetation. Froude’s Number was observed from 0 to 1 for both the cases. Also, low values for Coefficient of discharge and Manning’s coefficient explained low resistance offered during the flow for flexible vegetation unlike in the case of rigid vegetation where, there was much resistance offered to the flow. Lastly, Head Loss at every section was observed quite low explaining that the water lost during the experiment at every section was less.