Scour around Pile in Combined Waves and Current

TLDR

The study used irregular waves in laboratory experiments with codirectional and transverse configurations, measuring scour depth as a function of the current‑wave ratio Ucw and Keulegan‑Carpenter number KC ranging from 5 to 30 and Ucw from 0 to 1. Scour depth increases with the current component and reaches its steady‑current value when Ucw exceeds 0.7.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on scour around a pile subject to combined waves and current. Irregular waves were used in the experiments, which were carried out both for codirectional waves and for waves propagating perpendicular to the current. The measured scour depth is plotted as a function of Ucw = Uc/(Uc + Um) for various values of the Keulegan-Carpenter number KC in which Uc is the undisturbed current velocity and Um is the maximum value of the undisturbed orbital velocity at the sea bottom. In the experiments, KC ranges from 5 to about 30 and Ucw from 0 to 1. The results show that the scour depth increases with increasing current component of the flow. The scour depth attains its steady-current value for Ucw > 0.7.