Experimental and numerical study of the influence of plant configuration on the three dimensional wave propagation

The influence of partial plant configuration on the flood wave propagation resulting from dam break was investigated experimentally and numerically. The experiments were performed on the distorted physical model with horizontal scale of 1/150 and vertical scale of 1/30 of Urkmez Dam and its downstream region. The model contains the dam reservoir, the dam body, the residential area in the downstream of the dam until the sea and the partial plant configuration. The water depths were measured by the e + WATER L level sensors placed at various locations of the downstream region and the velocity values were measured by the ultrasonic velocity profilers (UVP) placed near the level sensors. The wave propagation was recorded by the high definition (HD) digital camera located at the downstream part. According to the experimental findings; in the case of the partial vegetation, the flood wave arrived approximately 33-50 percent later at the middle parts of Urkmez town where the settlement is sparse. The flood wave arrived approximately 67-86 percent later near the sea sides of Urkmez town where the settlement is dense. Increases up to 60 percent in maximum water depths were observed on the left bank, and decreases up to 44 percent in the area close to the sea on the right bank. When the numerical results obtained from the software FLOW-3D and experimental findings are compared; it has been found that the model, where the upstream initial boundary condition is the dam reservoir, the surface roughness is 1 mm and the size of cell is 5 cm is the most suitable. The turbulence models were compared by means of statistical parameters. Even though it was found that these parameters were very close to each other, the results obtained from the turbulence model RNG were slightly better. In the presence of partial vegetation, the flood wave arrived 17 percent later the middle part of left bank. The flood wave arrived 14 percent later near the sea part of right bank. It was revealed that the maximum water depths increased at all points on the right bank, except for the point close to the sea, and this increase was in the order of 53-73 percent in the middle regions.