Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of the local scour effect on circular bridge piers

Authors

Carmona Arteaga, Abel

Trigueros Cervantes, George Anthony

Campos Vasquez, Neicer

Abstract

Local scour in piers is one of the main causes of failure in bridges. The current procedures carried out to study this phenomenon, such as the implementation of physical models and formulas, show precision difficulties; therefore, it is a matter of great interest for engineers and bridge design. In this work, a numerical modeling and a graphical analysis were performed using the Ansys Fluent software, to analyze the interaction of a flow through a pier. The geometry of the channel and the pier were extracted from a published article, in which an experimental study was carried out consisting on the analysis of the effect of placing a ring around a circular pier as a device to control the depth of scour; Therefore, the scenario in which the flow hits the pier with a ring was modeled and the scenario in which the pier did not have the ring included was also modeled. From the modeling, it was possible to conclude that the use of a ring around a pier reduces the effect of local erosion and it was possible to contrast the results of the experimental physical model, coinciding that the scour depths of their study with the contour and vectors graph obtained from numerical modeling, thus successfully concluding an alternative that would support studies carried out with physical and conceptual models, which is the use of a numerical model and software that allows this type of modeling