Wave and Vegetation Interaction
Oral
Long-Huan Zhu, ME
Graduate Assistant
Department Of Civil And Environmental Engineering, University Of Maine, Orono, ME
The wave attenuation effects of suspended seaweed aquaculture farms have drawn recent attention due to the potential to serve as a green alternative to coastal protection. The wave-attenuating capacity of the kelp is affected by its flexibility. In this work, the interaction between waves and suspended flexible blades (Laminaria saccharina) was investigated. The large deformation of the blade was simulated using cable model while the waves were modeled using IHFOAM/OpenFOAM. The fluid-structure interaction was implemented through immersed boundary method. The work will provide the initial steps to examine wave attenuation through a dense kelp farm by considering the blade flexibility.