Hydraulic Analysis with CFD – Flow 3D Numerical Modeling of Local Erosion in Bridge Piles

Within the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios en Recursos Hídricos (CIERHI), the experimental analysis was carried out in a physical model of turbulence phenomena, which causes erosion around bridge piers (Chiliquinga & Pinto, 2019). The data of the experimental model was used as a calibration base for the three-dimensional numerical modeling of erosion around bridge piers, using the FLOW-3D computational package. Once the model was calibrated, the conditions with which the physical model was made were improved, since in the experimental results, it was determined that a deeper sand bed was necessary to be able to determine the maximum erosion. In the numerical model, the optimal conditions were placed to obtain results without the physical limitations that exist in an experimental model, thus obtaining results of maximum local scour in pier bridge, and these results were compared with values calculated based on different empirical equations.