Numerical investigation on the effect of bluntness factor on scouring mechanism by using lenticular geometry piers

Local scour and flow field around cylinders with lenticular geometry and different bluntness factors under the clear-water state were investigated numerically. To examine the scouring, large eddy simulation with a WMLES-Omega sub-grid model incorporating the sediment transport and morphodynamic model was applied. Streamlined geometry of the pier significantly affected the scour pattern and flow field in the lenticular model with length to width ratio of 5 and bluntness factor of zero. In the mentioned case, a very small scoured region was estimated at the sides of the pier, so it can be concluded that scour depth and scoured region decreases as the length to width ratio increases. Investigation of the scouring process and the flow field revealed that, the flow separation can affect the scour mechanism more in comparison to down-flow.