Simulation of flow around piers

Abstract

FLUENT CFD was used to predict the three-dimensional flow field around a circular cylinder. Solutions were obtained for rigid beds and for scour holes of different sizes resulting from different time-durations. The numerical results were used to obtain the variation of bed shear-stress around the cylinder. These results were used in the sediment continuity equation to obtain an expression for the variation of scour depth with time. The asymptotic scour depth was found to depend on three dimensionless numbers: the pile number, the sediment size number and the duration time number. The theoretical relationship was calibrated using various laboratory and field results.