Numerical simulation of plate scour around offshore platforms and strategies to prevent it

Mirabotalebi, Seyed Amirreza; Nezhadnaderi, Mehdi; Shamsi, Mehdi; Zahedi, Reza; Gholami, Mohammad; Mehrzad, Taha; Sheykhbahaei, Ali; Nazeriyan, Mohammadreza

doi:10.22034/ijcoe.2025.489028.1112

Numerical simulation of plate scour around offshore platforms and strategies to prevent it

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

Seyed Amirreza Mirabotalebi ¹

Mehdi Nezhadnaderi ²

Mehdi Shamsi ¹

Reza Zahedi ¹

Mohammad Gholami ¹

Taha Mehrzad ¹

Ali sheykhbahaei ³

Mohammadreza Nazeriyan ²

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, To.C., Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran.

² Department of Civil Engineering, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran.

³ PhD Candidate in Physical Oceanography at university of Hormozgan/ Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atomospheric science

10.22034/ijcoe.2025.489028.1112

Abstract

With the increase in construction in the sea, protective structures are considered to prevent their instability in the marine environment. Among the coastal protective structures, submerged plates are used in marine structural engineering to prevent scour. Therefore, it is very important to study and understand the erosion and sedimentation process in the area of the offshore platform base lines in terms of design, protection and maintenance. In this research, using the computational fluid dynamics method and Fluent software, the flow around the submerged offshore platform base was simulated with different Reynolds number states. The results of the iso velocity lines, m/s, show that the speed decreases behind the offshore platform base. The maximum speed is below the offshore platform base line, which will cause scour. By increasing the Reynolds number from 3000 to 7000, the maximum speed in this state increases. The results of the iso pressure lines in Pascals show that the pressure behind the base presses and decreases above and below it. The maximum negative pressure is below the base line of the offshore platform, which will cause scouring. As the Reynolds number increases from 3000 to 7000, the negative pressure in this case increases from -0.07 to -0.3 in Pascal, which will cause scouring. The maximum pressure is below the base line of the offshore platform, which is significantly higher than the case without the use of plates, which reduces the risk of scouring around the base.

Keywords

Offshore platform baselines

flow patterns

scouring

barrier plates

pressure gradient

Subjects