Flow characteristics of rectangular open channels with compound vegetation roughness

An idealized parallel flow caused by a lateral bed roughness difference due to the partial vegetation across a channel is investigated. Similar to the flow in a compound channel, there are mixing layers adjacent to the interface between the vegetation and the non-vegetation lanes, and a lateral momentum exchange occurs between the slow-moving water in the former lane and the fast-moving water in the latter lane. Under a uniform flow condition, the three-dimensional (3D) instantaneous velocities of two cases with different discharges and water depths are measured with a 16MHz acoustic Doppler velocimeter (micro ADV). The longitudinal variation of the streamwise velocity and the vertical variation of the Reynolds stress are analyzed. A quadrant analysis is carried out to investigate the outward and inward interaction, ejection, and sweep phenomenon caused by the vegetation variation across the channel. The results show that the flow characteristics in the vegetation lane are similar to those in an open channel fully covered with submerged vegetation, and the flow characteristics in the smooth non-vegetation lane are similar to those in a free open channel. For the cases studied here, the width of the mixing region is about 10% of the channel width, and the mixing region is mainly on the non-vegetation half.