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CFD simulation of clearwater scour at complex foundations
Offshore Gravity Base Foundations (GBFs) are often designed with complex geometries. Such structures interact with local hydrodynamics, creating an adverse pressure gradient resulting in bed shear stress amplification and scour in erodible soils. At present, physical modelling and simple prediction equations have been the only practical engineering tool for evaluating scour around these support structures. However, with the increasing computational power of computers and the development of new Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solvers, scour prediction around foundations using CFD is becoming more practical and accurate. In the present work, three-dimensional (3D) numerical modelling has been applied to reproduce local scour around a complex cylindrical base structure under the forcing of a unidirectional current in clearwater scour conditions. The simulations are carried out using a state-of-the-art multi-phase 3D Euler-Lagrange model based on the open source CFD software OpenFOAM. The fluid phase is resolved by solving modified Navier-Stokes equations, which take into consideration the influence of the solid phase, i.e., the soil particles. The solid phase is solved using the multi-phase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) approach, a method which takes into account the sediment-sediment interaction, while the particles follow Newton’s Law of Motion. The present paper also presents physical modelling results for scour around the same type of structure which were conducted for the same hydrodynamic forcing conditions as in the CFD model. The results of the experimental campaign are used to evaluate the ability of the CFD model to predict the: time evolution of scour; the equilibrium scour depth; and, the 3D characteristics of the scour hole. The results show that the present CFD solver has the capacity to predict with good accuracy the evolution of the scour hole and equilibrium scour depth while capturing key morphological features which are not captured by similar software packages.
CFD simulation of clearwater scour at complex foundations
Offshore Gravity Base Foundations (GBFs) are often designed with complex geometries. Such structures interact with local hydrodynamics, creating an adverse pressure gradient resulting in bed shear stress amplification and scour in erodible soils. At present, physical modelling and simple prediction equations have been the only practical engineering tool for evaluating scour around these support structures. However, with the increasing computational power of computers and the development of new Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) solvers, scour prediction around foundations using CFD is becoming more practical and accurate. In the present work, three-dimensional (3D) numerical modelling has been applied to reproduce local scour around a complex cylindrical base structure under the forcing of a unidirectional current in clearwater scour conditions. The simulations are carried out using a state-of-the-art multi-phase 3D Euler-Lagrange model based on the open source CFD software OpenFOAM. The fluid phase is resolved by solving modified Navier-Stokes equations, which take into consideration the influence of the solid phase, i.e., the soil particles. The solid phase is solved using the multi-phase particle-in-cell (MP-PIC) approach, a method which takes into account the sediment-sediment interaction, while the particles follow Newton’s Law of Motion. The present paper also presents physical modelling results for scour around the same type of structure which were conducted for the same hydrodynamic forcing conditions as in the CFD model. The results of the experimental campaign are used to evaluate the ability of the CFD model to predict the: time evolution of scour; the equilibrium scour depth; and, the 3D characteristics of the scour hole. The results show that the present CFD solver has the capacity to predict with good accuracy the evolution of the scour hole and equilibrium scour depth while capturing key morphological features which are not captured by similar software packages.
CFD simulation of clearwater scour at complex foundations
Tavouktsoglou, NS (author) / Harris, JM (author) / Whitehouse, RJS (author) / Simons, RR (author) / Keh-Chia, Y
2018-11-08
In: Keh-Chia, Y, (ed.) Scour and Erosion IX: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Scour and Erosion (ICSE 2018), November 5-8, 2018, Taipei, Taiwan. (pp. pp. 183-190). CRC Press: Boca Raton, Florida, United States. (2018)
Paper
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
690
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