Scour depth development at piles of different height under the action of cyclic (tidal) flow

Abstract

The impact of cyclic (tidal) flow on scour at cylindrical monopiles in the live-bed regime has been examined on the basis of results from mobile sand bed flume experiments. Four tests were conducted with four 0.114 m diameter piles of differing stickup height placed across the 4 m wide test section of the Fast Flow Facility. The tidal tests Tide01, Tide02 and Tide03 had the same peak current speed in forward and reverse direction with different cycle periods to examine the role of cycle length on scour. The period in Tide01 was approximately halved in Tide02 and doubled in Tide03. A unidirectional test Uni01 was run for comparative purposes. The results have shown how the cycle length adopted in testing has a key controlling effect on the scour achieved in a fixed number of cycles. The scour data measured on two sides of the piles at 1 Hz are plotted both in time-series format and pairwise to illustrate the cyclic nature of the scour development and recycling of sediment within the scour hole. The effective work method of Link et al. (2016) provides a good correlation for the dimensionless scour depth. The cyclic behaviour of the scour difference across the pile diameter has been analysed in terms of a basal slope and the magnitude of the scour depth, akin to geotechnical testing of monopile response to cyclic loads. Comparison with field measurements of scour shows that the cyclic tests can achieve non-dimensional scour depths found in the field. A progressive reduction in the slope angle is demonstrated for increasing number of cycles but further investigation of the different angle observed in field and laboratory is required. Finally the effect of pile stickup height is evaluated using both published and the current data, and a modified value of the Sumer and Fredsøe coefficient is proposed for undirectional and tidal scour. • Experimental analysis of tidal (cyclic) flow impact on scour development at piles. • Updated coefficient in prediction equation for scour at truncated piles in unidirectional and tidal currents. • Presentation of results in terms of cyclic behaviour of scour magnitude and basal slope in the scour pit.