A dataset on the hydrodynamic force on individual salt marsh plants and the flow structure and wave dissipation over a meadow of plants under waves with and without current

This dataset includes laboratory measurements of both the force on individual salt marsh plants and the flow structure and wave energy dissipation over a meadow of plants. Both experiments were conducted in the Nepf Fluid Mechanics lab at MIT in a 24-m-long, 38-cm-wide, 60-cm-tall water channel. Data measured in the individual plant experiment (IE) was represented as synchronized measurements of plant drag and free surface displacement, as well as 3-dimensional velocity profiles provided as raw data, phase-averaged data, and statistical data. The meadow experiments (ME) provide time-varying data of free surface displacement along the meadow at 10 and 15 cm intervals, as well as velocity profiles upstream of and within the meadow with 1 to 2 cm vertical resolution. In addition, the turbulent kinetic energy for each measurements and the wave decay coefficients for all conditions were calculated and reported.