2D-URANS Study on the Impact of Relative Diameter on the Flow and Drag Characteristics of Circular Cylinder Arrays

The flow structure around limited-size vegetation patches is crucial for understanding sediment transport and vegetation succession trends. While the influence of vegetation density has been extensively explored, the impact of the relative diameter of vegetation stems remains relatively unclear. After validating the reliability of the numerical model with experimental data, this study conducted 2D-URANS simulations (SST k-ω) to investigate the impact of varying relative diameters d/D under different vegetation densities λ on the hydrodynamic characteristics and drag force of vegetation patches. The results show that increasing d/D and decreasing λ are equivalent, both contributing to increased spacing between cylinder elements, allowing for the formation of element-scale Kármán vortices. Compared to vegetation density λ, the non-dimensional frontal area aD is a better predictor for the presence of array-scale Kármán vortex streets. Within the parameter range covered in this study, array-scale Kármán vortex streets appear when aD ≥ 1.4, which will significantly alter sediment transport patterns. For the same vegetation density, increasing the relative diameter d/D leads to a decrease in the array drag coefficient C¯D and an increase in the average element drag coefficient C¯d. When parameterizing vegetation resistance using aD, all data points collapse onto a single curve, following the relationships C¯D=0.34lnaD+0.78 and C¯d=−0.42lnaD+0.82.