Comparing the 3D Flow Behavior Around Different Bridge Pier Shapes Using CFD-Fluent: Implications for Reducing Local Scour

Abstract

The current study deals with simulation of 3D-flow around three different types of bridge pier shapes on a flatbed surface. The main objective of this article is to explore how water flows around various types of bridge piers. In this article, the CFD-Fluent (k-epsilon) turbulence model was used to simulate the flow turbulence around untraditional piers named upstream facing aero-foiled shaped pier (US-FASP) and downstream facing aero-foiled shaped pier (DS-FASP) and were compared with the circular pier, Results from the experiments were compared to the expected flow velocity (m/s), turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and other variables. The results of the threedimensional simulation of the water flow behavior and turbulent kinetic energy around the three various designs of bridge piers support that. The findings suggest that (DS-FASP) is the most effective sort of form to employ since it allows water to flow around it extremely smoothly, resulting in minimal obstruction of the water flow in addition to the lowest TKE. In this investigation, root mean errors were used. mean squared errors (MSE), mean absolute errors (MAE), and both the correlation coefficient (R) and the root mean square error (RMSE). The findings also demonstrated that the type of form (DS-FASP) outperformed pavements with other diverse shapes in terms of performance. From this, it was found that the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and longitudinal velocity (u) had mean least square errors (MSE) of 1.5E-0 and 7.6E-08, respectively, and coefficients (R 2 ) of 0.92 and 0.98. The shape of a wake vortex in a wake region is captured by the (k-epsilon) model. The k-epsilon turbulence model showed good similarities with the experimental results. The study's findings suggest that local cleaning in the vicinity of bridge piers can be scaled back in the future.