Computational Model for Wave Attenuation by Flexible Vegetation

Abstract

Coastal vegetation has a well-known effect of attenuating waves; however, quantifiable measures of attenuation for general wave and vegetation scenarios are not well known, so field and laboratory studies must be performed for individual setups. The standard practice of performing these studies for such scenarios is extremely expensive, and it is difficult to change parameters and setups. We presented and validated a computational model for a wave flume that can be used for studies of wave attenuation over flexible vegetation based on the previously developed immersed-structure method for fluid–vegetation interaction, thereby augmenting field and laboratory studies with a more-flexible and less-expensive alternative. The main advantage of this computational framework is that almost all terms are derived from first principles without requiring a large number of empirically determined parameters. A series of computational experiments were performed, and an analysis of the wave attenuation with respect to wave heights, spectra, and energy was conducted. Results were compared to results from experiments that the computational wave flume was designed to replicate.