Three-dimensional CFD modeling of local scour around bridge piers

Abstract

In recent years, sediment scour near bridge piers and abutment is a serious problem which cause nationwide concern because it has resulted in more bridge failures than other causes. After this question arose, more and more numerical analyses about this problem have been carried out. In this study, computational model simulations using a 3D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model were conducted to examine the mechanism of scour around one cylindrical pier, and then verified the scour results with the experiments carried out by D.L Liu from Dalian University of Technology. After that, the study about the local scour around side by side cylindrical piers and square shaped pier has been promoted. Subsequently, we studied the flow field, downwash motions, horseshoe vortices and vortex shading around the piers, and a detailed analyses of how these piers been damage and the equilibrium scour depth has been carried out.