Laboratory Study of Broken Wave Force Damping by Submerged and Emergent Long Tree Canopies

Forests as Green Belt reduce the height and energy of waves passing through them, reducing their ability to erode sediments and to cause damage to structures such as dikes and sea walls, (Mclvor and et all.,2012). It is well-accepted that wave attenuation by emergent and submerged vegetation is a function of plant characteristics as well as hydrodynamic conditions, (Augustin et al., 2009). (Hirashi and Harada, 2003) showed that the pressure difference on the sides of the green belt is mainly due to drag resistance. this study a new and unique method based on the principle of momentum and direct force measurement has been used to measure wave energy decay simulated by the Green Belt.Most previous studies have been conducted to analyze the wave forces on emergent structures and obstacles. Relative submergence is considered to be the relative roughness of trees and is a factor influencing the resistance of the forest to the passage of waves, (Davoudi et al., 2016). So the resistance of the canopies in the submerged state is one of the important factors in wave damping. Also, in previous studies, variable still water depth has been considered to create different ratios of submergence, which will change the characteristics of the wave. Therefore, in the present study, decided that the resistance of the canopy against broken waves in the submerged state would be determined by changing the height of the obstacles, which will be examined in this study (Figure 1).Figure 1-- Schematic view of the Rigid vegetation with different relative depth of submergence

Experiments were conducted in the Hydraulic Modeling Laboratory of the Faculty of Water Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in a 8.3×0.8×0.55 rectangular flume called Knife Edge Flume. Flume has Plexiglas sidewalls and bed and designed to measure the force exerted by the wave force on the barriers at its shore by means of a dynamic load cell installed between the movable and fixed parts of the flume. At the beginning of the experiments, wooden circular cylinders with 1 cm in diameter, fixed parallel arrangement were placed in the moving part of the flume with constant slope of zero. By changing the height of obstacles and generating breaking waves with constant height the absorption force by the canopies was monitored via an electrical display connected to the dynamic load cell.

The submerged ratio of tree canopies is equal to height of inundation depth to height of trees. Therefore, in the submerged state, the ratio is greater than one, and in the emergent state it is less than one. What is important in this study is that different ratios of immersion with different heights of barriers have been created.