Flow adjustment and interior flow associated with a rectangular porous obstruction

The flow at the leading edge and in the interior of a rectangular porous obstruction is described through experiments and scaling. The porous obstruction consists of an emergent, rectangular array of cylinders in shallow flow, a configuration that mimics aquatic vegetation. The main features of the flow depend upon the non-dimensional canopy flow-blockage, which is a function of the obstruction width and porosity. For the ranges of canopy flow-blockage tested in this paper, the fluid decelerates upstream of the obstruction over a length scale proportional to the array width. For high flow-blockage, the interior adjustment length within the porous obstruction is set by the array width. For low flow-blockage, the array's frontal area per unit volume sets the interior adjustment length. Downstream of the adjustment regions, the interior velocity is governed by a balance between the lateral divergence of the turbulent stress and canopy drag, or by a balance between the pressure gradient and canopy drag, depending on the lateral penetration into the array of Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) vortices, which is set by the non-dimensional canopy flow-blockage. For a porous obstruction with two stream-parallel edges, the KH vortex streets along the two edges are in communication across the width of the array: a phenomenon that results in cross-array vortex organization, which significantly enhances the vortex strength and creates significant lateral transport within the porous obstruction.