Effect of spacing on flow field characteristic of tube artificial reefs with parallel formation by CFD

In addition to attracting to fish, the flow field characteristics around Artificial Reefs (ARs) are key factors to prevent beach erosion. In the present study, research on hydrodynamics of artificial reefs primarily focusing on numerical simulation is conducted. The tube artificial reefs with parallel formation is analyzed based on comprehensive three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) approach by Renormalization Group (RNG) k-e turbulent model with respect to the length of slow flow region. The arrangement of artificial reefs is applied varying the spacing between the AR units both in transversal and longitudinal direction. The numerical results indicate that a greater artificial reef effect dealing with the slow flow region is obtained when the distance between the AR units of artificial reef is relatively close. According to the results, the largest slow flow region is achieved when the three rows of AR units is used. This result can be considered as a guide to reduce the beach erosion.