Hydrodynamics and Sediment Transport of Downslope Turbidity Current Through Rigid Vegetation

Abstract

AbstractSystematical downslope‐turbidity‐current experiments were performed to clarify the relationship between sediment‐transport modes and current propagation patterns caused by rigid vegetation, as well as adjustments in turbulence characteristics of current. The equations for predicting the front velocities of downslope turbidity currents with emergent vegetation were proposed and validated via experimental data. Experimental results reveal that sediment deposition causes the lower turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) peaks of turbidity currents to decrease or even disappear without affecting their upper TKE peaks, while the rigid vegetation has the opposite effect. Vegetation stems destroy the longitudinal low‐high speed streaks associated with the quasi‐streamwise eddies in the near‐bed region and increase the proportions of the outward and inward interactions. In addition, sediment deposition severely suppresses the turbulent bursting events within turbidity currents but does not influence the relative proportions of the four bursting types. Rigid vegetation and sediment deposition both degrade the absolute values of the third‐order moments of velocity fluctuations without changing their signs to reduce the generation frequency of sweep events. Emergent rigid vegetation accelerates the formation of the reflected bore to provide energy for the deposited sediment to move downstream continuously. On the other hand, the dense submerged vegetation makes turbidity currents easily form the two‐head propagating mode, which allows part of the sediments carried by the upper current head to be transported downstream rather than deposited within or upstream of the vegetation region. Furthermore, the sloping boundary provides favorable conditions to initiate these specific modes for sediment transport adjusted by rigid vegetation.