Scour Hole Influence on Turbulent Flow Field around Complex Bridge Piers

Experimental results of detailed flow measurements using an Acoustic-Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) around a complex bridge pier (CBP) are presented. The pier consists of a column, a pile cap (PC) and a 2×4 pile group. The time-averaged velocities, turbulence intensities, and Reynolds stresses are studied and presented at different horizontal and vertical planes. Streamlines obtained from the velocity fields are used to show the complexity of the flow around the pier. It is shown that the main feature of the flow responsible for the entrainment of the bed sediments is a contracted (pressurized) flow below the PC toward the piles. A deflected flow around the PC and a strong down-flow along its sides are observed and have been measured. It is shown that these flow patterns also cause sediment entrainment. Vortex flow behind the PC and amplification of turbulence intensity along its sides near the downstream region can be other reasons for the scour hole (SH) development. Turbulence intensities and Reynolds shear stresses are presented and discussed. A comparison is made between the flow field measured with the equilibrium SH and that measured on the fixed flat-bed. The results show that the flow field around the PC is considerably influenced by the development of the SH. The extent of the wake region at the rear of the PC is about 1.4 times larger for the fixed bed (FB) than for the scoured bed (SB). Moreover, the size of the core of high turbulent kinetic energy K, as well as the maximum values of K behind the column for the FB case is larger than that of the SB case. When a scour hole develops, the flow below the PC around the piles is considered to be the main cause of the scour. This is the first time that these observations about the flow and turbulence field around a complex bridge pier are reported and analyzed. In addition to improving the understanding of the flow structure, the present detailed measurements can also be used for benchmarking and verification of numerical models.     

圆柱绕流局部冲刷机制的实验研究

采用粒子图像测速技术和粒子图像识别技术研究了冲刷坑的演化过程及局部冲刷的流体动力机制。首先研究了动床条件下圆柱周围的床面演化过程，给出垂直对称面输沙率随时间变化以及圆柱下游垂直对称面的沙颗粒浓度和泥沙分布规律；其次针对典型冲刷坑形状固定底床，测量了圆柱下游的瞬时流场，并给出平均流场。结果表明尾流区平均剪应力较低，但垂向涡量和湍流强度较高。分析指出平均剪应力较低的尾流区域，局部冲刷的主要动力机制是尾涡和湍流的综合作用。     

桥墩-冰塞-局部冲刷相关问题研究进展

桥梁建设改变了河流的边界条件、水流条件和河床泥沙的运动状态,冬季河流中有冰塞出现时则产生相互影响作用.近年来,基于冰塞稳定性力学分析,开展了桥墩影响下冰塞稳定性研究,所得桥墩影响下冰塞稳定性判别公式计算结果和实测资料能够较好得吻合;研究了桥墩对河道卡封以及临界流凌密度的影响,计算得到的临界流凌密度与实验值较为接近;介绍了明流、冰盖下桥墩周围局部冲刷等方面的相关研究工作,得出了冰盖条件下桥墩局部最大冲刷深度的回归经验公式,结果表明该公式具有很好的适用范围.对冰塞条件下桥墩附近局部冲刷问题探索性地开展了试验研究,研究表明,冰塞条件下的局部冲刷与冰盖条件下有着很大不同,不仅冲刷深度要大的多,而且桥墩周围局部冲刷过程与冰塞厚度变化相关.在冰塞条件下,桥墩处的最大冲刷深度和最大冲刷长度均随流速增大而增大,冲刷坑尾部淤积沙丘高度也受到流速的影响.就相关研究难点和今后需要进一步开展的研究工作进行了分析和展望.      

Experimental measurement of flow past cavities of different shapes

Experiments are carried out in order to investigate the flow structure past a rectangular, triangular and semi-circular cavity of length-to-depth ratio of 2:1 using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. The experiments are performed in a large scale water channel with three different upstream velocities resulting in Reynolds numbers of 1230, 1460 and 1700, based on inflow momentum thickness, for each cavity type. Contours of constant averaged streamwise and transverse components of velocity, contours of constant averaged vorticity, Reynolds stress and streamline plots for each cavity type for the aforementioned three Reynolds numbers are presented. In addition, streamwise velocity, Reynolds stress and turbulence intensity values are compared for all cavity types. Effect of cavity shape on flow structure within the cavity is discussed in detail. Moreover, spectrum of instantaneous streamwise velocity fluctuations in shear layer near the downstream of the leading corner and the upstream of the trailing corner of the cavities are obtained and it was found that no organized oscillations are present in the flow; rectangular and triangular cavities have the largest amplitudes while semi-circular cavity has the smallest. Calculated turbulence intensities also reveal that the maximum turbulence intensities occur at cavity lid in the centerline section and rectangular and triangular cavities have larger turbulence intensity compared to semi-circular cavity.     

Flow around submerged structures subjected to shallow submergence over plane bed

The results of an experimental investigation on the flow field around submerged structures on horizontal plane beds, measured by an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), are presented. Experiments were conducted for various conditions of submergence, having submergence factors ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 and average flow velocity ranging from 0.25 to 0.51 m/s. The Froude number and the Reynolds number of the approaching flow for different runs are in the range of 0.18–0.42 and 50 000–76 500, respectively. The vertical distributions of time-averaged three dimensional velocity components and turbulence intensity components at different radial distances from the submerged structures are plotted. Deceleration and acceleration of the approaching flow around the submerged body are evident from the vertical distributions of the horizontal velocity component, whereas the lifting and diving nature of the flow are indicated by the vertical velocity component distributions. The vertical distributions of the horizontal velocity component indicate reduction of 30% of the non-dimensional time-averaged horizontal velocity component magnitude for the cylinder of diameter 11.5 cm in comparison to the cylinder of diameter 10 cm. Also, there is an increase of 10–25% in the horizontal velocity component at different radial sections. The flow is three dimensional in the downstream of the submerged structure. The velocity and the turbulent intensity components are also well predicted by FLUENT. The flow characteristics in the wake and the induced bed shear stress are also analyzed with FLUENT.The profiles of non-dimensional shear velocity deviate from the log law in the wake and the far downstream directions. The scour prone regions may be identified from the profiles of the induced bed shear stress around the submerged structure.     

The effect of arrangement of two circular cylinders on the maximum efficiency of Vortex-Induced Vibration power using a Scale-Adaptive Simulation model

The complex behaviour of an unsteady flow around two circular cylinders in tandem is of interest for many civil engineering applications across a wide range of aerospace, mechanical and marine applications. The present paper analyses Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) for the flow around two circular cylinders. It has been shown that the amount of kinetic energy which can be captured by VIV is a function of the arrangement of the two cylinders. The upstream cylinder is fixed while the downstream is mounted elastically with one degree of freedom normal to the mean flow direction. The efficiency of the VIV power obtained from downstream cylinder is compared for different arrangement of the cylinders. For this purpose, the longitudinal and lateral distances between the cylinders were varied and the Reynolds number was kept constant. Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) and Shear Stress Transport (SST) CFD models are utilized to analyse the validity of the SAS turbulence model. The results indicate that both turbulence models predict the flow characteristics around the cylinders with reasonable precision; however, the predictions from SAS were more accurate compared to the SST. Based on this comparison, SAS model was chosen as a tool to analyse the VIV response of the downstream cylinder. The location of the downstream cylinder has been altered in the wake of upstream one in order to obtain the optimum efficiency of the VIV power. The results reveal that the arrangement of the cylinders can significantly change the efficiency. It is also observed that cylinders offset from one another show a higher efficiency compared to cylinders with their centres aligned.     

Computation of three‐dimensional flow around square and circular piers

The aim of the present study is to investigate, by numerical simulation, the three‐dimensional turbulent flow field around square and circular piers. The numerical model employs a finite volume method based on MacCormack's explicit predictor–corrector scheme to solve weakly compressible hydrodynamic equations for turbulent flow. Computed results are compared with Dargahi's experimental measurements to assess the validity of the proposed model. Very good agreements are obtained. The results of flow simulation indicate that near the upstream face of the pier there exists a downflow, which joins the separated flow to form the horseshoe vortex stretched around the pier. This horseshoe vortex interacts with the wake vortex to create the upflow behind the pier. These phenomena appear to be very important to the mechanism of scouring around the pier. In general, the flow patterns for the square and circular piers are similar. However, the strengths of the downflow and horseshoe vortex are greater in the case of the square pier. The position of the horseshoe vortex around the circular pier is closer to the front face than that around the square pier. In the meantime, the domain of the wake flow in the case of the square pier is greater than that in the case of the circular one. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

TURBULENT ELLIPTIC WAKES

This paper describes results of an experimental study on turbulent wake of an elliptic disk set normal to the main flow, whose major diameter is 2·0 or 3·0 minor diameters, Reynolds number being 2·0×10⁴on the basis of the minor diameter D. Two periodic components of velocity fluctuations were found in the wake. One is centred around the minor plane, being due to the alternate shedding of rolled-up, hairpin-like vortices. The other is centred around the major plane, which is likely to be due to a meandering motion of the wake. The axis switching, which is a cross-over of half-widths in the major and minor planes plotted against the streamwise distance, occurred at approximately 4·0 D downstream of the disk. The mechanism of the axis switching is different from that in elliptic jets, and it is proposed that it is due to a difference in the growth rate of the fundamental Fourier modes in the minor and major planes. The structure of the wake is studied by flow visualization and a survey of the time-mean velocity, turbulence intensities and Reynolds shear stresses. Wavelet analysis of the velocity fluctuations disclosed a low-frequency unsteadiness in the wake. This unsteadiness has different representative frequencies in the major and minor planes, being approximately one-fifth of the frequency of the corresponding periodic component in both planes.     

Experimental study of flow past a square cylinder at high Reynolds numbers

 Measurements of two-components of velocity in the wake of a square cylinder using a hot-wire anemometer are reported. Two Reynolds numbers, namely 8700 and 17,625, have been considered. The measurements were carried out in a low-speed, low-turbulence wind tunnel. Benchmark experiments at much lower Reynolds numbers show good agreement between the present experiments and published results. At higher Reynolds numbers, the experimental data reveal anticipated trends in terms of wake recovery and turbulence decay. Both velocity and velocity fluctuations show symmetry about the wake axis. The experimental data have been compared with the large eddy simulation (LES) calculation reported by Wang et al. [University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign (1996) Report CFD 96-03] and LDV measurements of Lyn et al. [J Fluid Mech (1995) 304: 285–319]. The agreement among the three sets is generally acceptable in terms of the time-averaged velocity components, but not the velocity fluctuations. The turbulence fluctuations in the present experiments are seen to be lower than in the referred work. The differences have been traced to factors such as the aspect ratio, blockage ratio and upstream turbulence. Experiments with increased upstream turbulence did show a reduction in the discrepancy between the present experiments and the published data. An assessment of the experimental data in terms of physical mechanisms revealed that (a) streamwise normal stresses were correlated with the vortex centers, and (b) the turbulence kinetic energy profiles are similar to the turbulence shear stress. Spectral analysis of the velocity signals was carried out in the present work. Energy transfer from the mean flow to the streamwise velocity fluctuation was confirmed in the near wake. A redistribution of the kinetic energy between the streamwise and transverse components of velocity over a longer distance downstream was subsequently observed. Received: 17 May 1999/Accepted: 29 December 1999     

The turbulent flow field around a circular cylinder

The flow field around a circular cylinder mounted vertically on a flat bottom has been investigated experimentally. This type of flow occurs in several technical applications, e.g. local scouring around bridge piers. Hydrogen bubble flow visualization was carried out for Reynolds numbers ranging from 6,600 to 65,000. The main flow characteristic upstream of the cylinder is a system of horse-shoe vortices which are shed quasi-periodically. The number of vortices depends on Reynolds number. The vortex system was found to be independent of the vortices that are shed in the wake of the cylinder. The topology of the separated flow contains several separation and attachment lines which are Reynolds number dependent. In the wake region different flow patterns exist for each constant Reynolds number.     

Turbulent flow and loading on a tidal stream turbine by LES and RANS

This paper presents results from numerical simulations of a 3-bladed horizontal axis tidal stream turbine. Initially, Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) k–ω Shear Stress Transport eddy-viscosity and Launder–Reece–Rodi models were used for code validation and testing of a newly implemented sliding mesh technique for an unstructured finite volume code. Wall- and blade-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) were then performed to study the complete geometry at various tip speed ratios (TSR). Thrust and power coefficients were compared to published experimental measurements obtained from a towing tank for a range of TSR (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) at a fixed hub pitch angle. A strong meandering is observed downstream of the supporting tower due to interaction between the detached tip vortices and vortex shedding from the support structure. The wake profiles and rate of recovery of velocity deficit show high sensitivity to the upstream turbulence intensities. However, the mean thrust and power coefficients were found to be less sensitive to the upstream turbulence. Comparisons between RANS and LES are also presented for the mean sectional blade pressures and mean wake velocity profiles. The paper also presents an overview of modelling and numerical issues relating to simulations for such rotating geometries.     

Vortex Induced Vibrations of a Pair of Cylinders at Reynolds Number 1000

Vortex induced vibrations of two equal-sized cylinders in tandem and staggered arrangement placed in uniform incompressible flow is studied. A stabilized finite element formulation is utilized to solve the governing equations. The Reynolds number for these 2D simulations is 1000. The cylinders are separated by 5.5 times the cylinder diameter in the streamwise direction. For the staggered arrangement, the cross-flow spacing between the two cylinders is 0.7 times the cylinder diameter. In this arrangement, the downstream cylinder lies in the wake of the upstream one and therefore experiences an unsteady inflow. The wake looses its temporal periodicity, beyond a few diameters downstream of the front cylinder. The upstream cylinder responds as an isolated single cylinder while the downstream one undergoes disorganized motion. Soft-lock-in is observed in almost all the cases.     

串列双圆柱绕流问题的数值模拟

本文运用有限体积方法,对绕串列放置的双圆柱的二维不可压缩流动进行了数值计算。为研究两圆柱不同间距对圆柱相互作用和尾流特征的影响,选取间距比Ｌ／Ｄ（Ｌ为两圆柱中心间的距离,Ｄ为圆柱直径）在１．５～５．０之间每隔０．５共八个有代表性的间距进行了计算模拟。计算均在Ｒｅ＝２００条件下进行。计算结果表明：对该绕流问题,流动特征在很大程度上取决于间距的大小。且间距存在一临界值,间距比从小于临界值变化到大于临界     

Turbulent characteristics of shear-thinning fluids in recirculating flows

 A miniaturised fibre optic Laser-Doppler anemometer was used to carry out a detailed hydrodynamic investigation of the flow downstream of a sudden expansion with 0.1–0.2% by weight shear-thinning aqueous solutions of xanthan gum. Upstream of the sudden expansion the pipe flow was fully-developed and the xanthan gum solutions exhibited drag reduction with corresponding lower radial and tangential normal Reynolds stresses, but higher axial Reynolds stress near the wall and a flatter axial mean velocity profile in comparison with Newtonian flow. The recirculation bubble length was reduced by more than 20% relative to the high Reynolds number Newtonian flow, and this was attributed to the occurrence further upstream of high turbulence for the non-Newtonian solutions, because of advection of turbulence and earlier high turbulence production in the shear layer. Comparisons with the measurements of Escudier and Smith (1999) with similar fluids emphasized the dominating role of inlet turbulence. The present downstream turbulence field was less anisotropic, and had lower maximum axial Reynolds stresses (by 16%) but higher radial turbulence (20%) than theirs. They reported considerably longer recirculating bubble lengths than we do for similar non-Newtonian fluids and Reynolds numbers. Received: 23 February 1999/Accepted: 28 April 1999     

Near-Wake Turbulence Properties around a Circular Cylinder at High Reynolds Number

The present study investigates the turbulent properties of the flow around a circular cylinder in the near-wake and in the near-wall upstream region at the Reynolds number 140,000. A detailed cartography of the mean and turbulent velocity fields using a moderate blockage and aspect ratio is provided in order to use the present results for direct comparisons with realisable 3D Navier-Stokes computations. The flow structure is analysed by means of two experiments using respectively the LDV and the PIV techniques, both providing a refined grid of measurement points. The dynamics of the separation region, the growth and decay of turbulence in the near wake, as well as the spatial growth of the organised mode are analysed.     

基于浸入边界-格子Boltzmann通量求解法的椭圆柱流动特性分析

基于浸入边界-格子Boltzmann通量求解法,开展了雷诺数Re=100不同几何参数下单椭圆柱及串列双椭圆柱绕流流场与受力特性对比研究。结果表明,随长短轴比值的增加,单椭圆柱绕流阻力系数先减小后缓慢上升,最大升力系数则随长短轴比值的增大而减小;尾迹流动状态从周期性脱落涡到稳定对称涡。间距是影响串列圆柱及椭圆柱流场流动状态的主要因素,间距较小时,串列圆柱绕流呈周期性脱落涡状态,而椭圆柱则为稳定流动;随着间距增加,上下游圆柱及椭圆柱尾迹均出现卡门涡街现象,且串列椭圆柱临界间距大于串列圆柱。串列椭圆柱阻力的变化规律与圆柱的基本相同,上游平均阻力大于下游阻力;上游椭圆柱阻力随着间距的变大先减小,下游随间距的变大而增加,当间距达到临界间距时上下游阻力跃升,随后出现小幅度波动再逐渐增加,并趋近于相同长短轴比值下单柱体绕流的阻力。     

On the origin of wake-induced vibration in two tandem circular cylinders at low Reynolds number

We numerically investigate flow-induced vibrations of circular cylinders arranged in a tandem configuration at low Reynolds number. Results on the coupled force dynamics are presented for an isolated cylinder and a pair of rigid cylinders in a tandem configuration where the downstream cylinder is elastically mounted and free to vibrate transversely. Contrary to turbulent flows at high Reynolds number, low frequency component with respect to shedding frequency is absent in laminar flows. Appearance and disappearance of the vorticity regions due to reverse flow on the aft part of the vibrating cylinder is characterized by a higher harmonic in transverse load, which is nearly three times of the shedding frequency. We next analyze the significance of pressure and viscous forces in the composition of lift and their phase relations with respect to the structural velocity. For both the isolated and tandem vibrating cylinders, the pressure force supplies energy to the moving cylinder, whereas the viscous force dissipates the energy. Close to the excitation frequency ratio of one, the ratio of transverse viscous force to pressure force is found to be maximum. In addition, movement of stagnation point plays a major role on the force dynamics of both configurations. In the case of isolated cylinder, displacement of the stagnation point is nearly in-phase with the velocity. During vortex-body interaction, the phase difference between the transverse pressure force and velocity and the location of stagnation point determines the loads acting on the cylinder. When the transverse pressure force is in-phase with velocity, the stagnation point moves to higher suction region of the cylinder. In the case of the tandem cylinder arrangement, upstream vortex shifts the stagnation point on the downstream cylinder to the low suction region. Thus a larger lift force is observed for the downstream cylinder as compared to the vibrating isolated cylinder. Phase difference between the transverse load and the velocity of the downstream cylinder determines the extent of upstream wake interaction with the downstream cylinder. When the cylinder velocity is in-phase with the transverse pressure load component, interaction of wake vortex with the downstream cylinder is lower compared to other cases considered in this study. We extend our parametric study of tandem cylinders for the longitudinal center-to-center spacing ranging from 4 to 10 diameter.     

结构振动对湍流近尾迹的影响

研究了圆柱绕流中流体与结构的相互作用,侧重结构振动对湍流尾迹的影响,用激光测振仪测量圆柱在升力方向的位移;用热线和LDA（二维）测量湍流的近尾迹,通过变化自由流的速度和圆柱体直径（特征尺寸）来变化雷诺数,用两个振动特性不同的（一个相对刚性,一个相对弹）圆柱来产生尾迹,研究固体结构振动对湍流近尾迹的平均速度场和湍流场的影响,结果表明,结构自由振动对湍流近尾迹场影响明显,该影响随雷诺数的变化不明显。     

PIV analysis of flow around a container ship model with a rotating propeller

The flow characteristics of the propeller wake behind a container ship model with a rotating propeller were investigated using a two-frame PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry) technique. Ensemble-averaged mean velocity fields were measured at four different blade phases and ensemble-averaged to investigate the flow structure in the near-wake region. The mean velocity fields in longitudinal planes show that a velocity deficit is formed in the regions near the blade tips and hub. As the flow develops in the downstream direction, the trailing vortices formed behind the propeller hub move upward slightly due to the presence of the hull wake and free surface. Interaction between the bilge vortices and the incoming flow around the hull causes the flow structure to be asymmetric. Contour plots of the vorticity give information on the radial distribution of the loading on the blades. The radial velocity profiles fluctuate to a greater extent under the heavy (J=0.59) and light loading (J=0.88) conditions than under the design loading condition (J=0.72). The turbulence intensity has large values around the tip and trailing vortices. As the wake develops in the downstream direction, the strength of the vorticity diminishes and the turbulence intensity increases due to turbulent diffusion and active mixing between the tip vortices and the adjacent wake flow.