Numerical modelling of local scour in rivers using fluent 6.2

• Main Author: Cunninghame, Margaret
• Other Authors: Armitage, Neil
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Civil Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5057

Includes bibliographical references. === Scour and deposition are natural processes which take place in a river as the stream profile adjusts to changing flow rates, sediment loads and other environmental conditions. Man-made obstacles to the stream flow such as bridge piers and abutments and other hydraulic structures alter flow patterns causing local scouring and deposition. Excessive scour undermines the foundations of bridges and other fluvial structures which may ultimately cause their collapse. Reliable methods are needed to model the complex flow features at bridge piers and abutments and hence predict the associated patterns of local scour. Empirical formulae are notoriously inconsistent in their predictions of local scour depth (Johnson, 1995) while physical modelling is time-consuming and therefore expensive.