Submarine debris flow impact on pipelines — Part II: Numerical analysis

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical analysis was employed to analyze the situations tested experimentally, as described in Part I. The methodology and results of the CFD analyses are discussed and compared with the observations made from the experiments. The numerical model performed satisfactorily with regard to obtaining the impact forces exerted on the model pipe as well as simulating the hydroplaning phenomenon and estimating slurry flow heights. The experimental results were combined with the results of the CFD analyses to develop a practical method to compute the drag force caused by a submarine debris flow impact on a pipeline. The CFD analyses provided some insight to the separated region characterization, but the attempt to analyze the vortex shedding phenomenon as observed in the experiments was unsuccessful. Additional studies are required for better understanding of both the separated region characteristics and vortex shedding.