Flow around submerged structures subjected to shallow submergence over plane bed

• Experimental investigation on the flow field around submerged structures on horizontal plane beds were carried out.
• Vertical distributions of time-averaged three dimensional velocity and turbulence intensity components are plotted.
• Deceleration and acceleration are evident from distributions of horizontal velocity whereas lifting and diving from distributions of vertical velocity.
• Velocity and turbulent intensity components are well predicted by FLUENT.
• Profiles of the shear velocity deviate from the log law in the wake and far downstream directions.

The results of an experimental investigation on the flow field around submerged structures on horizontal plane beds, measured by an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), are presented. Experiments were conducted for various conditions of submergence, having submergence factors ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 and average flow velocity ranging from 0.25 to 0.51 m/s. The Froude number and the Reynolds number of the approaching flow for different runs are in the range of 0.18–0.42 and 50 000–76 500, respectively. The vertical distributions of time-averaged three dimensional velocity components and turbulence intensity components at different radial distances from the submerged structures are plotted. Deceleration and acceleration of the approaching flow around the submerged body are evident from the vertical distributions of the horizontal velocity component, whereas the lifting and diving nature of the flow are indicated by the vertical velocity component distributions. The vertical distributions of the horizontal velocity component indicate reduction of 30% of the non-dimensional time-averaged horizontal velocity component magnitude for the cylinder of diameter 11.5 cm in comparison to the cylinder of diameter 10 cm. Also, there is an increase of 10–25% in the horizontal velocity component at different radial sections. The flow is three dimensional in the downstream of the submerged structure. The velocity and the turbulent intensity components are also well predicted by FLUENT. The flow characteristics in the wake and the induced bed shear stress are also analyzed with FLUENT.The profiles of non-dimensional shear velocity deviate from the log law in the wake and the far downstream directions. The scour prone regions may be identified from the profiles of the induced bed shear stress around the submerged structure.