Improvements on bed‐shear stress formulation for pier scour computation

Abstract

AbstractThis paper introduces an improved formula for the bed‐shear stress by applying the vorticity effect and its application in a 3D flow and sediment model to estimate scouring around bridge piers. Up to now, the sediment transport formulae used for computing pier scour were developed based on the general scouring in unobstructed flow. The capability for numerical models to predict local scour around bridge piers was severely restricted by the sediment transport formulae. The new formula introduced in this paper can take into account vortices that affect the local scour process by adding some terms into the classic bed‐shear stress equation.The 3D numerical model system used in this study consists of three modules: (a) an unsteady hydrodynamic module; (b) a sediment transport module; and (c) a Fation module. The hydrodynamic module is based on the 3D RANS equations. The sediment transport module is comprised of semi empirical models of suspended load and non‐equilibrium bed load. The bed‐deformation module is based on the mass balance for sediment.The model was used to simulate pier scour in tree different test cases: (1) a circular pier; (2) a square pier; and (3) a rectangular pier, by applying the ordinary sediment equation and the newly introduced sediment equation. Results of both numerical simulations were compared against laboratory measured data and also in case 1 with result of Olsen and Melaaen (J. Hydraul. Eng. 1993; 119(9):1048–1054). Comparisons show that the new sediment formula could predict the scour more accurately than the ordinary one. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.