Effect of Flexible Vegetation on the Force’s on Structures Due to Long Waves

The wave run-up over beaches and coastal structures is the most important parameter that dictates the fixing of the crest elevation in order to avoid flooding during extreme events, like tsunami, typhoon and storm surge. The choice of type depends on the purpose for which it is proposed. This paper deals with the study of efficiency of vegetation as a buffer system in attenuating the incident ocean waves through a well-controlled experimental program. The focus of this study was on the measurement of forces due to Cnoidal waves on a model building mounted on a slope in the presence of varying densities of vegetation, starting with no vegetation present. In order to obtain a holistic view of the wave-vegetation interaction problem chosen for study, the vegetative parameters like the width of the green belt, its position from the reference line, diameter of the individual stems, and the spacing between them and their rigidity were varied. This paper introduces two new parameters, namely, Vegetation-Flow Parameter that combines the characteristics of vegetation and waves and Vegetal Parameter that describes the width of green belt (BG), spacing (SP) and diameter (D) of the vegetation. The details of experimental test set-up, measurement procedures, and results on the effect of vegetation on the variation of forces on a model building are presented and discussed in this paper.