Local scouring around a pier group is more complex than the one around a single pier. This study used numerical simulations to investigate the influence of coherent structures and their interactions on the development of scour hole around a pier group. The obtained results are validated with previous experimental findings. The simulations revealed that, in addition to the horseshoe vortex (HSV), other secondary vortices are present inside the scour hole. The interactions between them significantly changed the size and coherence of the HSV. The independent vortex interactions at the left and right piers led to differences in scour depth around those piers. The instantaneous velocity histograms revealed bimodal aperiodic oscillations in the HSV. The lateral movement of the detached legs of the HSV was found to be one of the reasons for the lateral expansion of the scour hole. The coherent structures are also extracted using a Lagrangian method called the Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs). The obtained LCSs extracted the shear layers formed upstream of the pier group. They also revealed the presence of anchor-like structures upstream of the pier group within the scour hole. This study identified new mechanisms contributing to the formation of scour holes around pier groups.
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January 2025
Research Article|
January 10 2025
Coherent structures in the flow around a pier group with scour hole
Special Collection:
Flow and Civil Structures
Murali Krishnamraju Kalidindi (मुरली कृष्णम राजु कलिदिण्डी)
;
Murali Krishnamraju Kalidindi (मुरली कृष्णम राजु कलिदिण्डी)
a)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing)
Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
, New Delhi 110016, India
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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Rakesh Khosa (राकेश खोसा)
Rakesh Khosa (राकेश खोसा)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Software, Validation)
Civil Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
, New Delhi 110016, India
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
Physics of Fluids 37, 015194 (2025)
Article history
Received:
November 12 2024
Accepted:
December 21 2024
Citation
Murali Krishnamraju Kalidindi, Rakesh Khosa; Coherent structures in the flow around a pier group with scour hole. Physics of Fluids 1 January 2025; 37 (1): 015194. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0248464
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