Flow patterns in compound channels with vegetated floodplains

Understanding the hydraulics of flow in a compound channel with vegetated floodplains is very important for determining the stage-discharge curve and for supporting the management of fluvial processes. In this paper, the flow patterns over different types of vegetation, such as tree, shrub, and grass, are described, based on an experimental study. For vegetation on the floodplain, the authors choose plastic grass, duck feathers, and plastic straws as model grass, shrubs, and trees, respectively. A 3D acoustic Doppler velocimeter was used to measure the local flow velocities for different types of vegetation on the floodplain, and the total discharge and flume slope were measured independently. In the cases of nonvegetated floodplains, all measured streamwise velocity distributions followed the logarithmic distribution, but for vegetated floodplains, they followed an S-shaped profile, exhibiting three zones. For all cases, the fluctuating velocity followed a normal distribution. The influence of different types of vegetation on the distributions of the secondary currents, turbulence intensities, and Reynolds shear stresses were also analyzed.