Investigation of water flow behaviour around circular bridge pier using computational fluid dynamics

Structure resistance such as bridge pier to flooding is a critical parameter that should be taken into consideration in analysis and design to prevent any structure failures mainly under natural disasters. Moreover, flood phenomenon has the ability to cause a turbulence flow that leads to increments of water velocity that may impact the bridge piers. Thus, the main objective is to investigate and compare the water flow behaviour around a circular bridge pier with and without fender installations, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In order to study performance of circular pier under the influence of water flow, single phase Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS), Finite Volume Method (FVM), k – epsilon and k – Omega turbulence models have been adopted in the simulation to reflect the boundary turbulence conditions. The outcome of the study indicates that installation of barriers managed to reduce adverse pressure gradient formation, leading to lesser strength of horseshoe vortex of the water flow behaviour surrounding the circular pier. In conclusion, CFD simulation tool offers effectively analyses and understands water flow behaviour around circular bridge piers, both with and without barriers installed in current study