LAMINAR FLOW PAST THE BOTTOM WITH OBSTACLES - A POROUS MEDIUM APPROXIMATION

We provide a model of a stationary laminar flow in a channel at the bottom of which plants grow in a dense layer. Since this layer of plants is dense, we treat it as a porous medium and we propose to describe the flow in such a medium by Brinkman's equation. The flow in the fluid layer located above (infiltrated by water) the layers of plants is described by the Stokes equation. We show that such a model gives results consistent with experimental observations. We indicate also that this new model complements the previously given model in which the benthonic plants were considered as a suspension, so the previous model referred to the channel at the bottom of which the plants grew rare. For high permeability of the porous medium, we arrive at the results obtained for the medium filled with a liquid with a suspension.