Re-examination of the effect of Reynolds number on local scour around a pipeline under steady current

Abstract

Herein, a two-dimensional numerical model was established to examine the effect of Reynolds number on local scour around a pipeline under steady current by solving the Naiver-Stokes equation with shear stress turbulence (SST) k-ω closure. Suspended load and bedload transport rates were considered in the model. The numerical results revealed that the Reynolds number can considerably affect the local scour around the pipeline. However, earlier works often ignored the effect of Reynolds number on local scour. An empirical equation for the variations in the maximum scour depth with Reynolds number was presented based on present study.