FLEXIBLE FLUID-STRUCTURE INTERACTION OF A FLEXIBLE PLANT MODEL FOR NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS

Abstract

Nature-based solutions (NBS) represent a new field of research and engineering applications, becoming increasingly popular in the coastal engineering field. Salt marsh restoration, an example of NBS, is particularly appealing due to the variety of benefits they can provide, especially their capacity to induce sediment accretion, potentially keeping pace with sea-level rise. This study investigates the applicability of the flexible fluid-structure (FSI) interaction module being developed for open-source software REEF3D to the motion of marsh plants under wave action using data from a physical model study performed by Paul et al. (2016). The model consistently overestimates the drag force response of a flexible plastic plant surrogate under wave action. This suggests that this new tool may not be suited for this case. However, further investigation must be performed to test the limits of the model’s application.