Numerical prediction on the scour burial of cylinder object freely resting on the sandy seabed in the East China Sea using the DRAMBUIE model

Abstract

After experiencing 8-day combined tidal current, circulation and wave actions, scour depth surrounding cylinder object freely resting on sandy seabed in the East China Sea (ECS) in January is numerically predicted using the DRAMBUIE model designed for scour burial, which has been widely used and verified by in-situ experiments. During the period of numerical integration, the value of timet is generally variable at every time step via the special time-stepped approach developed by this paper to eliminate the time error. The tidal current velocity, wave orbital velocity and the depth-averaged circulation in the ECS have been obtained by numerical simulations with Estuarine Coastal and Ocean Model (ECOM), Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model and Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) model respectively. The control experiment and several idealized test cases on influential factors in scour depth reveal that the dominant hydrodynamic factor is tidal current in the ECS under normal weather conditions, and the impacts of shelf circulation and wave motion on local scour almost can be ignored with an exception of the Kuroshio area where the high-speed mainstream of Kuroshio flows. It is also indicated that in sandy sediments, the distribution of scour depth nearly follows the pattern of tidal currents, while the secondary influencing factor on scour depth appears to be grain size of sandy sediment in the ECS. Numerical tests on sediment grain size further testify that much finer sand is more easily scoured, and an increasing trend for scour depth with reduction of grain size is displayed due to imposed resistance of larger sized particles. Three aspects explored by this paper, including the empirical equations in the Defense Research Agency Mine Burial Environment (DRAMBUIE) model, the accuracy of inputs and infill process can severely affect the prediction of scour depth surrounding cylinder objects freely resting on sandy seabed in the ECS.