Experimental studies of local scour in the pressurized OCF below a wooden log across the flow

Abstract

The proposed study examined and reviewed the published experimental results related to clear water scour below a cylinder across the flow. It also highlighted the limitations of existing methods for estimating the scour depth below a submerged cylinder. In the present study, experiments were performed for 50% and 75% submergences of a 70 mm diameter cylinder in the free surface flow over a uniform sand bed with d50=0.98 mm downstream of an apron. Based on the experimental results, an empirical equation was proposed to estimate the amount of gap flow between the cylinder and the bed for an equilibrium scour for a given flow depth and sediment properties. Measured scour profile consisted of a scour hole and immediately followed by a dune. However, no general sediment transport was occurring away from the cylinder due to the undisturbed bed shear stress less than or equal to the critical shear stress required for the sediment entrainment. Different submergence ratios of the cylinder resulted in different longitudinal and vertical extensions of the scour hole and the dune. The maximum equilibrium scour depth occurred when the cylinder is fully submerged in the unidirectional flow with water depth equals to the cylinder diameter. The non-dimensional measured scour profiles were found to be similar. The characteristic lengths of the scour hole and the dune were computed analytically by approximating the measured scour profile by third degree polynomials. The computed non-dimensional scour profiles compared satisfactorily with the measured profiles. It was found that analytical non-dimensional scour profiles were identical for a given diameter of a cylinder with different submergences for the same flow conditions.