An improved Eulerian method in three-dimensional direct numerical simulation on the local scour around a cylinder

Abstract

An improved Eulerian method with a novel morphologic model is developed based on the direct numerical simulation (DNS) approach to study the local scour. A movable immersed boundary method is proposed to prescribe the geometry of the riverbed. Two techniques, namely the Simultaneous Bed Adjustment Method (SBAM) and (Segment Plane Method) SPM, are proposed to model the complex time changing geometry of the riverbed. The SBAM technique considers sand sliding in the model and the SPM is an algorithm calculating the geometrical parameter of the complex riverbed. A wind tunnel experiment obeying Reynolds similarity and measuring the pressure in a fixed scour hole is carried out to compare with the numerical results. The results show that the movable immersed boundary method performs well in capturing the local scour and qualitatively agrees with the experimental study in how the scour hole develops. The numerical results also show that the DNS can capture the formation of the local scour in details at the beginning and find that the Reynolds stress u'v’ plays an important role in an erosion at the leading edge of the cylinder. Therefore, the newly improved Eulerian method is a valuable tool for DNS studies of local scour with the implementation of MPI.