Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

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Coastal Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/coastaleng

Numerical investigation of scour around the monopile using CFD-DEM

coupling method
Shuye Zhang, Boen Li, Huihuan Ma *
School of Civil Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), 510275, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The risks posed by local scour around offshore monopile foundations are substantial and threaten the structural
Local scour safety of these installations. It is therefore essential to study the mechanisms of local scour to mitigate these risks.
Sediment transport Numerical simulation is an effective tool to help us understand the mechanisms of local scour. However, the
Monopile
accurate modeling of the local scour process remains to be challenging due to the complexity of sediment
Steady current
(CFD)
transportation, in which the continuity threatment of sediment phase is typically used, the discrete behavior of
Computational fluid dynamics the sediment is hard to be described. Therefore, in this paper, in order to conduct the deepin investigation into
(DEM) the mechanism of the local scour around monopile, a three-dimensional CFD-DEM model was established by
Discrete element method coupling the computational fluid dynamic method (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM). To increase the
(CGM) efficiency and accuracy of the CFD-DEM model, the coarse grain method (CGM) was used to decrease the number
Coarse grain method of required DEM particles in the simulation, and the angle of repose was used to calibrate the contact parameters
Seepage between DEM particles. During the validation process of the numerical model, it was found that the development
of the scour depth and the morphology of scour pit obtained by the CFD-DEM model showed good agreement
with the previously published results. The CFD-DEM simulation revealed that seepage-induced vertical drag force
plays a crucial role in the initial stage of local scour. Two sediment transportation processes, "Pile toe erosion-
Slope avalanche" and "Push-Accumulation-Wash", were observed and the relationship between bedload sedi­
ment flux and the Shields number was quantified. In the end of this paper, the critical evaluation of the CFD-DEM
method was conducted.

1. Introduction
In recent years, offshore wind power engineering has experienced
rapid development. According to a recent investigation conducted by
IRENA (2021), the total installed capacity of offshore wind turbines
worldwide reached 28308 MW by the end of 2020, with a growth rate of
nearly 30% over the past decade. Due to the advantages of simple
structure, small land occupation, and high bearing capacity, the
monopile foundation is the foundation form that is most widly used in
offshore wind structures, according to the report by Wang et al. (2018).
Serious local scour problems are a significant challenge for the monopile
foundation. According to the research of Prendergast et al. (2013), the
effective embedment depth of the monopile is decreased by the local
scour pit, which weakens the horizontal bearing capacity of the
monopile and affects the natural frequency of the support structure.
Therefore, it is of great significance to study local scour’s development
process and mechanism in the vicinity of marine monopiles, in order to
offer scientific guidance for engineering practice regarding the predic­
tion and prevention of scour.
The local scour around the marine monopile is a long-standing
problem. As early as the 1960s, Chabert and Engeldinger (1956) con­
ducted some experimental studies on the monopile scour under different
flow velocities, pile diameters, and sand diameters, and the equilibrium
scour depth is the focus of the study. After that, more scour experiments
of the monopiles were conducted, and various formulas for predicting of
scour depth when dealing with complex and variable scour conditions
were also worked out, such as the 65-2 formula in Chinese Hydrological
Specifications for Survey and Design of Highway Engineering, HEC-18 for­
mula used by Federal Highway Administration, Melville formula by
Melville and Sutherland (1988), S/M formula by Sheppard et al. (2014)
and so on.
With the development of computer technology, the numerical
methods has become widely used for investigating the scour process and
mechanism around monopiles. Olsen and Melaaen (1993) carried out

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mahh5@mail.sysu.edu.cn (H. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2023.104334
Received 18 November 2022; Received in revised form 28 April 2023; Accepted 7 May 2023
Available online 8 May 2023
0378-3839/© 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V.
S. Zhang et al.
the earliest numerical simulation on the monopile scour, which mainly
focus on the initial stage of the local scour. Roulund et al. (2005)
simulated the whole process of monopile local scour, providing results
that are valuable references for subsequent research, including the
research by Zhao et al. (2010), Baykal et al. (2017), Song et al. (2022),
Gautam et al. (2021), Song et al. (2022) and other researchers. To
consider the influence of the free water surface, Liu and García (2008)
introduced the air phase into the CFD simulation by using the Volume of
Fluid (VoF) method, which enhances the feasibility for the research on
local scour under wave conditions.
In most of the numerical simulation research, the shape of the sedi­
ment surface was estimated through the morphologic model based on
the empirical sediment transportation model, which is referred to as the
morphologic method. However, the morphologic method is over­
whelmingly dependent on the empirical equations that are mostly
derived under steady flow conditions and their applicability to complex
turbulent conditions around the pile needs futher investigation. In
recent years, numerical models based on physical models rather than
empirical formulas have gained significant attention and showen sig­
nificant advancement. Among these models, the Euler-Euler two-phase
flow model and Euler-Lagrange two-phase flow model are
representative.
The Euler-Euler two-phase flow model assumes that the sediment is
continuity and represents sediment with the fluid that has unique
rheological properties. It can consider the interactions between water
and sediment particle, as well as the interactions between sediment
particles. Significant improvements have been made to the sediment
transportation model based on the Euler-Euler two-phase flow, partic­
ularly in the areas of interface force and particle stress modeling.
Amoudry et al. (2008) first discussed the Euler-Euler two-phase flow
model in the simulation of sediment transportation. After nearly a
decade of optimization and improvement, Cheng et al. (2017) developed
the opensource toolbox called ‘SedFoam’ to solve the sediment transport
problem using Euler-Euler two-phase flow model. Using the SedFoam
model, Nagel et al. (2020) conducted local scour simulation around the
monopile under steady current and validated the effectiveness of the
Euler-Euler two-phase flow model for local scour simulation around
monopiles. Although the Euler-Euler two-phase flow model has made
significant progress, based on the authors’ understanding and the
research of Chen et al. (2011) and Durán et al. (2012), it still has the
following limitations, which are mainly owing to the assumption that
the sediment phase is continuous.
(i) The continuity assumption assumes that the sediment particles
suspended in the fluid are fluid that fills the entire space and is
completely void fraction-free. However, in practical conditions,
when the concentration of sediment particles in the fluid is
relatively low, the number of sediment particles is insufficient to
form a continuous phase, therefore the continuity assumption is
no longer applicable;
(ii) The continuity assumption of the sediment phase ignores the
inherent material characteristics of the sediment particles that
are discretely and randomly distributed, these characteristics
play important roles in the determination of the critical starting
conditions of sediment;
(iii) The model uses the binary collision assumption to consider the
particle-particle interaction. However in the initial stage of local
scour, the sediment motion is active and the binary collision
assumption is no longer applicable.
To account for the discrete behavior of sediment, the CFD-DEM
method has started to be used in the simulation of sediment trans­
portation. It is a kind of Euler-Lagrange two-phase flow model, which
uses the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to solve the flow
field, and uses the discrete element method (DEM) to compute the
motions of sediment particles. The CFD-DEM method has been proven to
2
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
be a useful and efficient numerical tool for investigating the mechanism
of local scour around pipelines using a teo-dimensional approach. Zhang
et al. (2015) used the CFD-DEM method to simulate the initial stage of
pipeline local scour, and identified that the large calculation resource
consumption is the main factor that limits the engineering application of
the CFD-DEM method. Yang et al. (2018) simulated the whole process of
pipeline local scour using the CFD-DEM method, and the accuracy of
CFD-DEM method was validated using experimental data from Mao
(1988). Hu et al. (2019) used the CFD-DEM coupling method to simulate
the local scour around two pipelines, and employed the coarse grain
method to improve the simulation efficiency. In order to improve
simulation accuracy, Song and Park (2022) calibrated the rolling friction
coefficient of sediment particles based on the angle or repose, which
helps improve the accuracy of the prediction of scour pit morphology.
Simulating local scour around a monopile is a three-dimensional
problem that requires significantly more computational resources than
the cases under two-dimensional conditions. So far, only a few scholars
have investigated the local scour around monopile using the CFD-DEM
coupling method. Jaeho Shim (2016) simulated the local scour around
monopile using the CFD-DEM method for the first time, and the char­
acteristics of the distribution of sediment particle velocities were
analyzed. Liu et al. (2022) also conducted the simulation on monopile
local scour using the CFD-DEM method, it is proposed that the collision
between particles plays a dominant role in scour at the early stage of it.
Although promising efforts and attempts have been done based on the
CFD-DEM method, further research is needed to explore the application
of the CFD-DEM method in the local scour simulation around the pile.
In this paper, a three-dimensional CFD-DEM numerical model was
established to study the local scour around the monopile under steady
flow condition. In order to reduce computational resources consump­
tion, the coarse grain method was utilized to decrease the number of
DEM particles. And the interaction parameters between the DEM par­
ticles were calibrated using a numerical test on the angle of repose to
achieve more accurate simulation of scour pit morphology. The CFD-
DEM model was validated by comparing its results with experimental
datas reported by Roulund et al. (2005) and the simulation results re­
ported by Nagel et al. (2020). Based on the validated numerical model,
an investigation into the local scour mechanism was conducted.
2. Theoretical background
In the CFD-DEM model, the computational fluid dynamic model and
discrete element model are used to simulate the fluid phase and particle
phase, respectively. To realize the coupling between the above two
models, the data exchange between them is carried out at certain in­
tervals. Here is the detailed theoretical background of the CFD-DEM
model.
2.1. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
The N–S (Navier-Stokes) equations are used as the governing equa­
tion to describe fluid motion. The equations include the continuity
equation and momentum equation. In the CFD-DEM model, considering
the contribution of particle interactions, the governing equations of
incompressible viscous fluid are as follows:
∂( ) ( )
α ρ + ∇ • αf ρf uf = 0 (1)
∂t f f
∂( ) ( ) ( )
α ρ u + ∇ • αf ρf uf uf = − αf ∇p + ∇ • αf τf + αf ρf g − Rf ,p (2)
∂t f f f
where the subscript f indicates the fluid phase; αf is the fluid volume
fraction; ρf , uf and p are the fluid density, velocity, and pressure,
respectively; g is the gravitational acceleration; τf is the fluid shear
stress; and Rf,p is the momentum exchange term between fluid and
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 1. Diagram of CFD-DEM coupling algorithm.

particles. αf , τf and Rf,p could be expressed as follows: turbulence model to obtain the turbulent viscosity coefficient. In this
np
study, the large eddy simulation (LES) model proposed by Smagorinsky
∑ /
αf = 1 − αp = 1 − Vp,i ΔV (3) (1963) is used to simulate the turbulence, which divides the turbulent
i=1 motion into large-scale vortices and small-scale vortices. The LES model
uses the direct numerical simulation (DNS) method to simulate the
[ )T ]
τf = −
2( )
v∇ • uf I + v ∇uf + ∇uf
(
(4) large-scale vortex motion and uses the sub-grid scale stress (SGS) to
3 consider the influence of small-scale vortex motion. The SGS can be
⃒ np ⃒ calculated as follows:
⃒ ∑ ( )⃒
⃒ f ⃒
⃒ d,i ⃒ ( ) 1
Rf ,p = i=1
⃒ ⃒ uf − 〈up 〉 (5) τ ij − τ kk δij − 2vsgs sij (12)
ρ ΔV ⃒uf − 〈up 〉⃒
f
3

where τij is the SGS; sij = (∂ui /∂xj +∂uj /∂xi )/2 is the resolved scale strain
where αp is the particles volume fraction; ΔV and Vp,i are the volume of a
rate tensor; vsgs is the sub-grid eddy-viscosity. In the solution of vsgs , the
computational cell and volume of particles inside this cell, respectively;
np is the number of particles inside the cell; v is the fluid viscosity; I is a one-equation eddy-viscosity sub-grid model from Yoshizawa and Horiuti
(1985) is adopted, which can can more accurately describe the
unit tensor; 〈up 〉 is the average velocity of particles in the computational
three-dimensional flow field under a high Reynolds number. The vsgs in
cell; f d,i is the fluid-particle force of particle i, which is mainly composed
the one-equation eddy-viscosity model is as follows:
of drag force, and can be calculated by the method proposed by Gidas­
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
pow (1994) as follows: vsgs = ck Δ ksgs (13)
β ( )
fd = Vp uf − up (6) ∂ksgs ( ) ( )
αf + ∇ • ksgs uf − ∇ • Dk ∇ksgs = G − εsgs (14)
∂t
When αf > 0.8,
where Δ is the sub-grid scale filter size; ksgs is the sub-grid scale turbulent
⃒ ⃒
3 ρf ⃒uf − up ⃒αf αp ψ kinetic energy; Dk = v + vsgs ; G = vsgs |sym(∇u)|2 ; εsgs = ce k1.5
sgs /Δ; ce , ck
β = Cd αf (7)
4 dp are both the parameters based on dynamic process.

where Cd is the drag force coefficient, dp is the diameter of particle, and 2.2. Discrete element method (DEM)
ψ = − 2.65.
For Re ≤ 1000: In DEM method, each sand particle is simplified as a sphere with
24 [ ( )0.687 ] specific property. The motion of each particle includes translation and
Cd = 1 + 0.15 αf Re (8) rotation, which are controlled by the following formula:
αf Re
dup,i ∑ nc
( )
For Re > 1000: mp = f n,ij + f t,ij + mp g + f d,i (15)
dt j=1
Cd = 0.44 (9)
dωp,i ∑ nc
[ ( )]
When αf ≤ 0.8, Ip = Ri × f n,ij + f t,ij (16)
dt j=1
( ) ⃒ ⃒
αp 1 − αf v ρf αp ⃒uf − up ⃒
β = 150 + 1.75 (10) where mp is the particle mass; up,i and ωp,i are the translational and
αf dp2 dp
angular velocity of particle i, respectively; f n,ij , f t,ij are the normal contact
where Re is the particle-based Reynolds number as follows: force and tangential contact force, respectively; Ri is the vector from the
center of particle i to the contact point; Ip is the rotational inertia of
ρf ⃒⃒ ⃒
Re = uf − up ⃒dp (11) particle; nc is the number of particles in contact with particle i.
v The computation of contact force is based on the contact model be­
To enclose the above N–S equation, it is necessary to introduce the tween particles. The Hertz-Mindlin non-slip softball model proposed by

3
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 2. Computational settings of the local scour simulation.

Mindlin and Deresiewicz (1953) is applied to calculate the contact force, between the diameter of the coarse grain particle and the original par­
in which the contact force is simplified as the combination of string, ticle is defined as coarse grain ratio (kCG ).
damper, and slipper. The normal and tangential contact forces can be There are three assumptions of the coarse grain method according to
described as follows: the research of Takabatake et al. (2018): i) When the coarse grain par­
ticles collide with each other, all particles in one coarse particle collide
f n,ij = − ks δn − ηun,ij (17)
simultaneously; ii) The displacement and the velocities of the coarse
{ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ grain particles are assumed to be the average of those of the original
− ks δt ⃒− η⃒ut,ij ⃒ ⃒f t,ij ⃒ ⃒ ⃒
⃒ ≤ μ⃒ s f n,ij
f t,ij = ⃒ (18) particles; iii) The contact forces acting on the coarse particles are
− μs f n,ij t f t,ij > μs f n,ij ⃒
⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒
calculated by assuming that the kinetic energy of the coarse grain par­
ticles agrees with that of the original particles. The contact forces can be
where the subscripts n and t indicate the normal and tangential direction
calculated by the following formula:
of the tangent plane between two particle spheres, respectively; ks and η
( )
are the stiffness and damping coefficients, respectively; μs is the friction f n,ij,CG = CG3 f n,ij = CG3 − ks δn − ηun,ij (19)
coefficient; δ is the displacement vector between two contacting parti­
{ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒
cles; u is the relative velocity vector between two contacted particles; − ks δt ⃒− ηu ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒
⃒ ⃒ f t,ij,CG = CG3 f t,ij = CG3 ⃒ ≤ μ⃒ s f n,ij,CGM
⃒ n,ij ⃒ f t,ij,CGM ⃒ (20)
and t = ut,ij /⃒ut,ij ⃒ is the unit tangent vector. − μs ⃒f n,ij ⃒t ⃒f t,ij,CGM ⃒ > μs ⃒f n,ij,CGM ⃒

Similarly, the drag force acting on the coarse particle can be derived
2.3. CFD-DEM coupling method
as:
The CFD-DEM coupling simulation is based on the CFDEMcoupling® β ( ) β ( )
f d,CG = Vp,CGM uf − up,CGM = Vp CG3 uf − up = CG3 f d (21)
project from Goniva et al. (2012), which is an object-oriented open-­ αf αf
source coupling Library based on the Linux platform and written in C++
language. Under the CFDEMcoupling® framework, the OpenFOAM® is Where the variables with subscript CG means the parameter of Coarse
used for fluid calculation, and the LIGGGHTS® is used for particles particle.
calculation, CFDEMcoupling® can couple the fluid phase and particle
phase by conducting the interaction force calculation and momentum 3. Numerical model validation
transfer between fluid and particles. The coupling process is summarized
in Fig. 1. 3.1. Numerical model settings

2.4. Coarse grain method
The coarse grain method was used in this research to reduce the
computation consumption of the CFD-DEM simulation. A large-sized
particle called coarse grain (CG) particle is used to replace a group of
particles in the coarse grain method, and the force applied on the
original particles is accumulated to the large-sized particle. The ratio
The simulation domain is shown in Fig. 2(a). The main part is a
rectangular water flume with a submerged sand box arranged in the
mid-rear of it. The sand box is filled with discrete particles to form a sand
bed, and a monopile with the diameter (D) equal to 0.04m is located in
the center of the sand bed. The water flume extends along the x-axis,
with a total length of 60D, of which 50D is located in front of the pile and
10D is located behind it. The direction of water depth is along the z axis,

4
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 3. Mesh partition of the simulation domain.
with a total height of 6D, of which 4D is located above the surface of
sand bed and 2D is located below it. And the width of the water flume is
5D.
Along the x-axis, the water flume is divided into four sections: the
preparatory section, transition section, scour section, and tail section.
The preparatory section is 35D long, with a 5 mm thick sediment layer
consisting of discrete particles covering on the bottom, to ensure the
near-bottom turbulent boundary layer can be fully developed. The
transition section is 7.5D long and has a variable cross-section, its bot­
tom slope is 15◦ . The height of the water flume gradually increases from
4D to 6D with the increase of the x-axis coordinate, forming a smooth
transition from the preparatory section to the scour section. The purpose
of the transition section is to reduce the influence of the cross-section
mutation on the flow field in front of the pile.
The scour section is 10D long, with the sand box located at the
bottom of it. As shown in Fig. 2(b), the sand box contains two types of
particles with diameters of 1 mm and 2 mm, respectively. The 1 mm
particles are placed in the active scour areas near the sediment bed
surface and the pile, while the 2 mm particles are placed in the inactive
scour areas at the peripheral of the pile and deeper depth. The purpose of
this configuration is to reduce the computational cost of the DEM
simulation without affecting the simulation accuracy.
The boundary conditions of the simulation are illustrated in Fig. 2(c),
and the specific settings are as follows.
(i) At the inlet, the velocities along the y direction and z direction are
specified with zero, and the pressure p, turbulent kinetic energy k,
and turbulent viscosity νt are specified with zero gradient condi­
tions. The profile of x-direction velocity ux is specified based on
the logarithmic law as follows:
( )
uf 30z
ux (z) = ln
κ Δ
where uf is the friction velocity; κ is the von Karman constant, in this
study, κ = 0.4; Δ is the bed roughness, which is usually taken as 2.5
times the sediment diameter d.
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
Table 1
Summary of the geometry characteristics of the computational mesh.
Characteristics Value or Range
Total number of cells 291,708
Number of cells around the pile perimeter 36
Thickness of cells around the pile perimeter (m) 2 × 10− 3
Size of cells along the x axis (m) 6 × 10− 3
Size of cells along the y axis (m) 6 × 10− 3
Size of cells along the z axis (m) 4.5 × 10− 3
Range of y + on the bottom wall 20–45
Range of y + on the pile wall 13–61
Table 2
Summary of the discretization schemes used for simulation.
Discretization scheme
Time scheme Euler
Gradient scheme Gauss linear
Divergence scheme U: Gauss linearUpwind grad(U) k: Gauss linearUpwind grad
(k)
Laplacian scheme Gauss linear
Interpolation linear
scheme
(ii) At the outlet, zero gradient conditions (∂/∂n = 0) are specified for
all quantities, except for the pressure, which is specified with the
total pressure condition (p0 = 0).
(iii) At the top surface, slip condition (u • n = 0) is specified for u, zero
gradient conditions are specified for p, νt and k.
(iv) At the pile surface and bottom surface, noslip condition (u • n = 0,
ut = 0) is specified for u, zero gradient condition is specified for p.
The boundary condition for νt and k is specified using the wall
function from OpenFOAM, with nutUSpaldingWallFunction for νt
and kqRWallFunction for k, respectively.
(v) At the sidewall surface, symmetry condition is specified for all
quantities.
A structured mesh is used to discretize the computational domain, as
shown in Fig. 3. To facilitate mapping the discrete phase properties into
the Eulerian phase mesh and improves the numerical stability of CFD-
DEM simulation, it is essential to ensure the particles’ size everywhere
smaller than the size of mesh cell, hence the minimum size of mesh cells
is limited above 2 mm. The mesh is refined around the pile, the refined
area is a 3D diameter cylinder concentric with the pile. Other detailed
information about the mesh is listed in Table 1.
The limitation of the CFD-DEM model on the minimum grid size
restricts the subdivision of the grid near the wall, making it difficult to
directly analyze the flow in the viscous sublayer and buffer layer of the
boundary layer. Therefore, in this study, the wall functions were used to
calculate the near-wall flow. The recommended condition for using wall
functions is that the non-dimensional distance y+ > 15. From Table 1
and it can be seen that in this model, the y+ on the wall boundary can
mostly satisfy the above condition, hence the wall functions are appli­
cable to this model.
The finite volume method (FVM) was used to solve the governing
equations of hydrodynamics and the discretization schemes used for the
simulation are listed in Table 2. The time step for the CFD is determined
by the courant number, and is set to 1 × 10− 3 s. The tim step for the DEM
(22) is determined by the Rayleigh time criterion given by GmbH (2014), and
is set to 1 × 10− 5 s. In the following article, several CFD-DEM local scour
simulations are conducted, for a CFD-DEM model with 0.5 million DEM
particles, the average time consumption of 1s simulation is 3 h on the
AMD EPYC 7H12 with 128 processors.
5
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 4. Diagram of repose angle test.

Table 3
Repose angles αr under different friction coefficients (μs is slide friction coefficient, μr is roll friction coefficient).
μs μr Accumulation shape αr (◦ ) μs μr Accumulation shape αr (◦ )
0.4 0.1 23.2 0.8 0.1 31.5

0.6 0.1 26.4 0.7 0.125 33.6

0.6 0.125 29.3 0.6 0.2 34.0

0.6 0.15 30.8 0.8 0.2 37.3

3.2. Calibration of the particle-particle contact parameters and behind the pile. Additionally, the slope angle in front of the pile
increases with the angle of repose, which is reasonable since the pit slope
The particle-particle contact parameters in DEM model include the is mainly influenced by the particles’ angle of repose. On the other hand,
slide friction coefficient (μs ) and roll friction coefficient (μr ). The slide the pit slope angle behind the pile decreases as the angle of repose in­
friction coefficient represents the surface roughness of particles, with the creases. This is because the formation of the scour pit behind the pile is
increase of slide friction coefficient, it needs a larger external force to not related to the avalanche of sediment particles. As the scour depth
drive the relative slip between particles, and the friction angle of par­ behind the pile decreases, the slope angle also decreases.
ticles increases correspondingly. The roll friction coefficient is carried It can be seen that the particle-particle contact parameters affect the
out to model the behavior of non-spherical particles, it has been reported morphology of the scour hole, including the scour slope angle and scour
by Ai et al. (2011) that the roll friction coefficient has an unignorable depth, by affecting the particle rest angle. Therefore, when comparing
influence on the accumulation shape of particles, and the friction angle with model experiments, the corresponding contact parameters can be
also increases with the increasing roll friction coefficient. calibrated from Table 3, which benefits the accuracy of scour pit
A numerical test on the angle of repose is designed in this section, it’s morphology prediction a lot.
diagram is shown in Fig. 4. At the beginning of the test, the particles are
initiated and stabilized in the funnel-shaped container; then the baffle at
3.3. Validation of the coarse grain method
the outlet is removed and the particles start to drop toward the rough
plane; finally, a conical accumulation is formed on the plane. The slope
The coarse grain method is used in this section to decrease the
angle of the accumulation is defined as the angle of repose (αr ). Based on
computational resource consumption of the CFD-DEM simulation. To
the results of several numerical tests, Table 3 is established to map the
verify the feasibility of coarse grain method in the CFD-DEM simulation,
contact parameters with the angle of repose, which can provide a
three simulation cases with different CG ratios (kCG = 1, 1.5 and 2) are
approach to calibrate the values of the contact parameters in the DEM
tested under the same working condition. In the case of kCG = 1, the
model by using the realistic angle of repose. From Table 3 it can be seen
coarse grain method is not used, and it is brought out to verify the other
that, with the increase of μs and μr , the angle of repose increases from
cases. Under different kCG , the development of the maximum scour
23.2◦ to 37.3◦ .
depth and the scour pit at the profile y = 0 are compared in Fig. 7 and
To further investigate the relationship between the angle of repose
Fig. 8, respectively.
and the scour pit morphology, three CFD-DEM coupling models with
The development of relative scour depth (S/D) upstream and
different angles of repose (23.2◦ , 33.6◦ , 37.3◦ ) are established. The scour
downstream the pile are shown in Fig. 7(a) and (b), respectively. It can
pit morphologies at profile y = 0 under different angles of repose are
be seen that the time dependent curves of relative scour depth under
shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the slope angle in front of the pile
kCG = 1.5 and kCG = 2 approach the same, while compared with the
varies with x/D, especially in the range within 1.5D to the pile center in
condition of kCG = 1, the scour depth is underestimated for 10%~20%
front of pile, where the concentration of horseshoe vortex causes the
using the coarse grain method. However, according to the scour pit
slope angle become larger there. Outside this range, the variation of
morphology at profile y = 0, as shown in Fig. 8, the underestimate of
slope angle becomes much smoother. Therefore, the terrain data within
scour depth is mainly distributed in the area cline to the pile, which only
the area of 1.0D ~1.5D to pile was selected to calculate the slope angle of
owns a small region in the scour pit, and does not affect the global shape
scour pit, as well as the slope angle behind it. The slope angle and
of the scour pit. Hence the difference in the scour depth induced by the
maximum scour depth of the scour pit are plotted in Fig. 6.
coarse grain method is acceptable in this research.
As the angle of repose increases, the frictional resistance between
The coarse grain method will be taken in the following research. By
particles also increases, which makes it more difficult for sediment to
setting kCG as 2, the number of DEM particles can be reduced to 12.5% of
start moving. This results in a decrease in the scour depth both in front of
the original model, which will largely decrease the computational

6
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 5. Scour pit morphology at profile y = 0 under different angles of repose.
Fig. 6. Variation of the slope angle and maximum scour depth in front and
behind the pile under different angles of repose.
7
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
resource consumption of the CFD-DEM simulation.
3.4. Validation of local scour model
To validate the CFD-DEM method in the simulation of local scour
around the monopile, a CFD-DEM model was established based on the
experimental parameters from Roulund et al. (2005). In the experiment,
the pile diameter (D) is 0.1 m, the median particle size (d50 ) is 0.26 mm,
the bulk flow velocity (Ub ) is 0.46 m/s, and the depth of water (h) is
0.4m. In the CFD-DEM model, the above parameters are modified to
avoid the huge amount of DEM particles, hence ensuring the feasibility
of DEM calculation. Under the premise that the test conditions are
equivalent, the D, d50 , Ub and h are set to 0.04m, 1 mm, 0.66 m/s, and
0.16m, respectively. The detailed parameters settings are shown in
Table 4. In which the equivalence principles come from the research of
Roulund et al. (2005) and are listed as follows:
(i) The same relative velocities (U/Ucr ), or the same relative Shields
numbers (θ/θcr , as shown in Eqs. (23)–(25));
(ii) The relative pile diameters (D/d50 ) that are greater than or equal
to 40, it is indicated by Melville and Sutherland (1988) that when
the ratio D/d50 ≥ 40, the scour depth is almost independent of the
D/d50 ;
(iii) The Reynolds numbers (Re) with the same order of magnitude,
within the same order of magnitude, the difference in Reynolds
numbers can only lead to a small difference in the size of the
horseshoe vortex and therefore can be disregarded.
(iv) The fairly small Froude numbers (Fr), when the value of Fr is
small, the influence of the free water surface is limited, hence the
influence of Fr can be disregarded.
u2f
θ= (23)
g(s − 1)d50
0.3
θcr = + 0.055[1 − exp (− 0.02D∗ )] (24)
1 + 1.2D∗
Where uf is the friction velocity, s = ρs /ρw is the relative density of
sediment, g is the acceleration of gravity, d50 is the median diameter of
sediment particles, D∗ is the dimensionless diameter of sediment parti­
cles, which can be calculated by the following formula:
[ ](1/3)
(s − 1)g
D∗ = 2
d50 (25)
v
The detailed parameters settings of the CFD-DEM model are listed in
Table 5. With the above parameters settings, the simulation was con­
ducted and run for 200s of real-time, which spends 25 days on the AMD
EPYC 7H12 with 128 processors. The consumption of computational
resource is about 76800 CPU hours, which needs 8.8 years for a single
processor to complete the simulation.
The time scale is the parameter to describe the time consuming of a
physical process. It is essential in the prediction of the monopile local
scour, using which the time dependent development of local scour can
be predicted. Owing to the difference in the dimension between the CFD-
DEM numerical simulation and the experiment, the time scale of the case
in CFD-DEM is about 1/47.1 times that in Roulund’s case. To ensure the
comparability between the time dependent curves of the above two
cases, as showen in Eq. (26), the dimensionless time t∗ by Sumer et al.
(1992) as is used.
[ ]
3 0.5 − 2
t∗ = t g(s − 1)d50 D (26)
Where t ∗ is the dimensionless time, t is the scour time, and D is the pile
diameter.
The relative scour depth (S/D) - dimensionless time (t∗ ) curve in front
of the pile is plotted in Fig. 9. By comparing it with the results of
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 7. Development of the scour depth with different kCG .

Fig. 8. Scour pit morphology at the profile y = 0 with different kCG .

Table 4
Parameters settings of the experiment and CFD-DEM model.
h (m) Ub (m/ uf (m/ θ θcr θ/θcr
s) s)

Roulund et al. 0.4 0.46 0.021 0.105 0.050 2.12

(2005)
CFD-DEM 0.16 0.66 0.040 0.066 0.031 2.12

D d50 D/d50 ◦
αr ( ) Re ( × Fr
(m) (mm) 104 )

0.1 0.26 385 32.7 4.6 0.23

Roulund et al.
(2005)
CFD-DEM 0.04 1 40 33.6 2.64 0

Table 5
The parameters settings of the CFD-DEM model.
Model Parameters value

DEM Number of particles Np 515,966

Particle diameter d50 (m) 0.001
Particle Density ρs (kg/m3) 2 650 Fig. 9. Development of the maximum scour depth in front of the pile.
Poisson’s ratio μ 0.45
Young’s modulus E (Pa) 5 × 106
Coarse grain ratio kcg 2.0 experiment and simulation conducted by Roulund et al. (2005). It can be
Slide friction coefficient μs 0.7 seen that the CFD-DEM model established in this study can precisely
Roll friction coefficient μr 0.125 predict the development of the scour depth and accurately predict the
Time step ΔtDEM (s) 1 × 10− 5 equilibrium relative scour depth of ds /D = 1.2. It can also be seen that,
CFD Fluid density (kg/m3) 1 000 the development of scour depth can be divided into the following three
Viscosity (m2/s) 1.002 × 10− 3
stages:
Mean flow velocity (m/s) 0.66
Flow depth (m) 0.16
Reynolds number of pile 2.64 × 104
(i) The initial stage: when t ∗ ≤ 1.3, the scour depth in front of the
Time step ΔtCFD (s) 1 × 10− 3 pile increased rapidly, reaching almost 2/3 of the equilibrium
scour depth within 1/7 of the equilibrium scour time;

8
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 10. Development of the scour pit morphology at the profile y =
0 over time.
Fig. 11. Vertical profiles of the mean relative horizontal velocity 〈Ux 〉/ U at the
location 0.8 m upstream of the pile at different times.
(ii) The deceleration stage: when 1.3 < t ∗ ≤ 7, the development rate
of the scour depth decreased gradually with time. Compared with
the initial stage, the time consumption to reach a certain incre­
ment of scour depth was greatly increased. And because of the
repetitive process of "Pile toe erosion-Slope avalanche" (which
will be discussed in 4.2), the scour depth also fluctuated with
time;
(iii) The equilibrium stage: when t ∗ > 7, the maximum scour depth
had nearly reached equilibrium, and the development of local
scour pit in front of the pile tended to stop.
The development of scour pit morphology at profile y = 0 is plotted
in Fig. 10. It can be observed that at the initial stage, when t∗ = 0.4, the
scour pit in front of the pile had already taken shape, and the sediment
accumulation behind the pile had appeared. The scour depth increased
with the enlargemnet of scour pit over time, and it was observed that the
scour depth in front of the pile was consistently greater than that behind
the pile; By t∗ = 8, the development of the scour pit in front of the pile
had nearly reached equilibrium, while the scour behind the pile was still
very active. Between t∗ = 8 and t ∗ = 16, the scour depth in front of the
pile only increased by 4%, while the scour depth behind the pile
increased by nearly 22%.
In summary, the CFD-DEM method can accurately predict the
development of local scour around the pile. Compared with the tradi­
tional numerical simulation method, it is able to provide more
comprehensive insight into the sediment’s initiation and movement
during the local scour process, This detailed information will be dis­
cussed in sections 4.2 and 4.3, and it can aid in conducting more thor­
ough investigations into the local scour mechanism around the pile.
9
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
Fig. 12. Comparison of the vertical profiles of the dimensionless Reynolds
stress R = uUu2 at the end of pre-simulation between CFD-DEM model and
′ ′
DNS model.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Flow field around the pile
A pre-simulation is conducted to provide sufficient time for the
turbulent boundary layer fully develop. During this stage, the DEM
particles are frozen, and their velocity and external forces are set to 0.
However, momentum transfer from the particles to the flow remains
effective.
The presence of particles induces near-bottom turbulence, causing
the thickening of the turbulent boundary layer during pre-simulation.
Fig. 11 shows the curves of the mean relative horizontal flow velocity 〈
Ux 〉/Ub distribution along the depth measured 0.8 m upstream of the pile
at different times. The curves indicate that the development of flow
velocity distribution is processed rapidly within the initial 5 s and then
tends to slow down, and the vertical profile of flow velocity increasingly
converged to the logarithmic law. Finally, the vertical profile of flow
velocity appeared to stabilize after 40 s, hence the pre-simulation was
stopped after that time.
To further validate the results of the pre-simulation, the distribution
of Reynolds stress (R) along the depth at the final moment of the pre-
simulation was compared with the data obtained by Kempe et al.
(2014), who utilized the direct numerical simulation (DNS) method and
the submerged boundary method to investigate the flow field in the open
channel with a sandy bottom. The comparison of Reynolds stress be­
tween the results of our research and DNS simulation is shown in Fig. 12.
It is proved that the values and distribution of Reynolds stress of
CFD-DEM simulation are both consistent with the results of DNS simu­
lation, which shows the accuracy of the turbulent flow field in the
pre-simulation.
After the pre-simulation, the local scour simulation was conducted.
Fig. 13 displays the vertical profiles of the relative horizontal flow ve­
locity 〈Ux 〉/U, the sediment particle fraction αp , and the sediment par­
ticle velocity Us when t∗ = 4, t ∗ = 8, t ∗ = 16 at three locations around
the pile, specifically, in front of the pile, to the side and front of the pile,
and behind the pile. In front of the pile, where x/D = − 0.75, we use the
location where αp = 0.01 to represent the water-sediment interface
(indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 13), above the interface, the flow
velocity is positive and follows a similar distribution pattern at different
times, and there is no sediment particle here, so it’s velocity is 0. Below
the interface, the downward flow in front of the pile drives the formation
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 13. Vertical profiles of relative mean horizontal velocity 〈Ux 〉/U, particles’ volume fraction αp and sediment particles’ velocity Us at different locations around
the pile when t ∗ = 4, t ∗ = 8, and t ∗ = 16.
of the horseshoe vortex, with its peripheral flow moving in the direction
away from the pile, leading to the negative flow velocity. And the
sediment particle fraction increases with the decrease of z/H, until
reaching a steady value of around 0.55. Within the sediment layer be­
tween αp = 0.01 and αp = 0.55, the sediment particle velocity initially
increases and then decreases with the decrease of z/H, the maximum
sediment particle velocity occurs below the water-sediment interface,
indicating that bedload is the primary form of sediment transportation.
To the side and front of the pile, where x/D = − 0.53 and y/D = − 0.55,
the flow velocity below the water-sediment interface increases signifi­
cantly compared with that in front of the pile, resulting in higher sedi­
ment particle velocity and the fluctuation of sediment particle fraction
near the water-sediment interface.
Behind the pile, where x/D = 0.75, significant differences are
observed. Regarding the flow velocity, when t∗ = 4, negative velocity
occurred at the location z/H > 0.18 due to the backflow of the wake
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Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
vortex. Moreover, at all times, the flow velocity fluctuated along the
water depth due to the asynchronous shedding of the wake vortex.
Concerning the sediment particle velocity, two peaks appear on the
velocity curve when t∗ = 8, they were located above and below the
water-sediment interface, representing the suspended load and bedload
components of sediment transportation, respectively. When t ∗ = 16, the
peak of the sediment velocity curve appeared to be slightly higher than
the water-sediment interface, indicating a tendency of the trans­
formation from bedload to suspended load. Hence, behind the pile, the
suspended load is active during the development stage of scour process.
To visualize the cohesive vortex structure surrounding the pile, we
have employed the Q-criterion, which involves calculating the second-
order invariant of the velocity gradient tensors using Eq. (27). This
criterion identifies regions with positive Q values as being dominated by
vorticity, while regions with negative Q values are dominated by strain
rate. By plotting the iso-surface of Q values, we can visualize the vortex
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 14. Coherent structure of vortex structure around the pile.
regions, as depicted in Fig. 14.
1 ( ⃒ ⃒ ⃒ ⃒)
Q = ⃒Ωij ⃒ − ⃒Sij ⃒
2
Where Ωij is the magnitude of vorticity tensor, Sij is the magnitude of
strain-rate tensor. The calculation formula of Ωij , Sij are as follows:
( )
1 ∂ui ∂uj
Ωij = − (28)
2 ∂xj ∂xi
( )
1 ∂ui ∂uj
Sij = + (29)
2 ∂xj ∂xi
Behind the pile, the alternately shedding of the wake vortex and the
unregular near-bottom vortex due to the interaction between water and
sediment particles can be observed in Fig. 14. With the development of
the flow field, the wake vortex behind the pile entered the stable
shedding state, as depicted in Fig. 15 which displays the plane distri­
bution of vorticity at different relative water depths z/D. It is observable
that at z/D = 2 and z/D = 4, the wake vortex shaded regularly and
alternately. Based on the flow velocity and the distance between vortex
cores, the period of vortex shedding can be calculated as Lcore / U =
0.283s, which is in agreement with the result estimated by the Strouhal
number D/(St • U) = 0.303s. At z/D = 1, the stable vortex shedding can
no longer maintain due to the interaction between flow and sediment
particles behind the pile, which significantly affected the flow pattern of
Fig. 15. Graph of vorticity at the profiles vertical to z axis at different z/D.
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
wake vortex, The wake vortex was elongated in length and its shedding
frequency experiences a significant decrease. And with the further
decrease of z/D, the influence of sediment particles further increased,
and the vortex structure turned from regular to irregular.
The CFD-DEM method can depict the seepage behavior inside sedi­
ment, which is often neglected in other simulation methods. Fig. 16 il­
lustrates the seepage field at the x = 0 profile at different times,
revealing that the seepage starts from the scour pit’s bottom, where the
pressure concentrates due to the horseshoe vortex. The pressure drives
the flow to seep horizontally away from the pile’s periphery, exhibiting
varied seepage patterns at different depths. In the shallow layer, the flow
maintains high vorticity, thus rotating and seeping out of the sediment
surface after a certain horizontal displacement. In contrast, the deeper
layer experiences lower vorticity and is driven by gravity to seep deeper
during horizontal movement.
Fig. 17 illustrates the relative vertical drag force Fd,z /Fg acting on
individual particles in the early stage of scour. The maximum vertical
drag force attained a magnitude equivalent to that of gravity, and the
closer a particle is to the water-sand surface, the greater the vertical drag
force acting on it. This vertical drag force diminishes part of the gravity
acting on sediment particles, making them easier to start up. Hence the
seepage-induced vertical drag force can be a crucial factor in the early
stage of local scour.
4.2. Development of local scour pit
(27) In this section, the morphological characteristics and development
process of the local scour pit under steady current are investigated and
discussed in detail, as well as the mechanism of sediment particles
movement behind the development of the scour pit.
In the initial period of the local scour process, the morphology of the
scour pit in front of the pile obtained by CFD-DEM simulation is
compared with the simulation results obtained by Nagel et al. (2020).
Under the same relative scour depth, the comparison of scour pits be­
tween the CFD-DEM model and the Euler-Euler two-phase flow model is
presented in Fig. 18, the black lines represent the sediment surface ob­
tained from the Euler-Euler multiphase flow simulation, and the colored
particles represent the results obtained from the CFD-DEM simulation.
Fig. 18 reveals that both models share a common feature of scour pit: a
platform with a width of roughly 0.2D in front of the pile, and the
maximum scour depth occurs at the position of about 0.1D from the pile
wall. Outside the platform, as the distance from the pile increases, the
slope angle of the scour pit initially increases and then decreases before
eventually stabilizing. The comparison results show that the two models
produce comparable results in terms of scour morphologies and
maximum scour depths, providing further validation for the CFD-DEM
method’s accuracy.
Fig. 19 illustrates the elevation distribution of the scour pit at
different times. When t∗ = 0.4, the maximum scour depth had reached
nearly 50% of the equilibrium scour depth only in the initial 2.5%
11
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 16. Seepage field at the x = 0 profile at different times.
duration of the scour process. And the scour pit to the side and front of
the pile had initially formed, with a shape similar to the horseshoe and
symmetric about the x-z plane. The maximum scour depth was located
in the position adjacent to the outer surface of the pile where the center
angle β is approximately 45◦ . When t∗ = 2, the area of scour pit
expanded significantly, the scour pit not only developed toward the
periphery of the pile but also developed toward the back of the pile. As
the scour pit continued to develop, when t∗ = 8, the scour pit had
already connected behind the pile, and the wake flow drove the scour pit
to extend downstream along the x-axis, causing the shape of scour pit
turning from the horseshoe-shaped to the spoon-shaped.
It can be observed that with the development of scour, as shown in
Fig. 19(c) and (d), there is a rapid change in the elevation of the scour pit
12
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
at the position about 0.75 times the pile diameter from the pile center.
This phenomenon can be more clearly observed through the slope angle
of the terrain, as shown in Fig. 20. For the sake of description, we define
the distance to the pile center as R. In the region of R < 0.6Dp , the slope
angle is small and the surface of scour pit is nearly flat; In the region of
0.6Dp < R < 0.9Dp , the slope angle increases significantly, with the
maximum slope angle reaching 70◦ , far exceeding the angle of repose
αr = 33◦ , in this region, the friction between sediment particles can no
longer maintain the stability of particles, the slope avalanche as shown
in Fig. 21 occurred under the drive of gravity.
In front of the pile, the evolution of scour pit morphology and the
velocity vectors of sediment particles at the profile y = 0 are illustrated
in Fig. 21. Fig. 21(a) shows the slope avalanche caused by excessive
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 17. Relative vertical drag force Fd,z /Fg acting on particles due to seepage at the profile x = 0 at different times.
Fig. 18. Comparison of the scour pit profile y = 0 in front of the pile at the
initial stage of local scour.
slope angle, and Fig. 21(b) shows the sediment supplement from the
slope avalanche and the erosion at pile toe. It is observed that during the
development of scour, the slope avalanche and the scour at the pile toe
occur alternately. Firstly, the increase in scour depth at the pile toe leads
13
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
to an increase in the slope angle, which in turn triggers the slope
avalanche. Then, during the slope avalanche, the sediment particles
separate from the slope move downward and supply into the pile toe,
resulting in the decrease of scour depth and the enlargement of scour pit.
Subsequently, the sediment at the pile toe continues to experience
erosion, then the above process repeats, resulting in the fluctuating
growth of scour depth and the enlargement of scour pit. Similar sedi­
ment movement mechanisms had been brought out in the studies by
Roulund et al. (2005) and Nagel et al. (2020), who suggested that the
erosion at the pile toe is responsible for the deepening of scour pit, while
the slope avalanche is responsible for the sediment transportation from
the periphery to the pile toe and the enlargement of scour pit.
The scour pit morphology and its formation mechanism on the pile
side have key differences from those in front of the pile. Fig. 22 illus­
trates the evolution of scour pit morphology at the profile x = 0, as can
be observed, a terrain mutation appeared on the slope of the scour pit,
with the slope angle greater than 90◦ , which is significantly larger than
the angle of repose. However the slope avalanche did not happen in this
area. It is believed that the maintenance of this special scour
morphology is related to the additional force provided by the water-
sediment interaction, and its formation mechanism is illustrated in
Fig. 23.
The formation process of the above scour morphology can be
concluded as the “Push-Accumulation-Wash” process, with the expla­
nations as follows.
(i) Push: As shown in Fig. 23(a), in the plane perpendicular to the x
direction, the bottom flow of the horseshoe vortex pushed the
sediment on the bottom of scour pit to move outward along the
surface of scour pit;
(ii) Accumulation: With the increase of the slope angle, the sediment
particles received greater resistance, which made them stop and
accumulated on the surface of scour pit. The accumulation body
was located at 0.3 ∼ 0.6 Dp from the pile wall, with the width
equal to 0.3 Dp and the height equal to 0.5 Dp ;
(iii) Wash: In the accumulation body, the interaction forces between
particles were much lower because the gravity is partly balanced
by the force from the bottom flow, the resistance acting on par­
ticles was lower accordingly, hence making the sediment easier to
start up. As shown in Fig. 23(b), when the concentrated flow on
the pile side passed through the accumulation body, a large
amount of sediment is carried by concentrated flow and removed
from the scour hole, forming a motion trajectory as shown in the
white curve frame.
The "Pile toe erosion-Slope avalanche" process reveals the mecha­
nism of sediment transportation in front of the pile, while the "Push-
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 19. Eevation of the scour pit around the pile at different times.

Fig. 20. Slope angle of scour pit around the pile under different times.

Accumulation-Wash" process explains the mechanism of sediment
transportation besides the pile side. Among which the "Push-Accumu­
lation-Wash" process is firstly observed in the existing studies, this may
be a special phenomenon that occurs under larger sediment particle
sizes, but due to the lack of the mesoscopic data of sediment movement
during the local scour process, the correctness and universality of this
phenomenon remain to be verified.
4.3. The sediment flux – shields number relationship curve
The sediment flux - Shields number relationship curve is an impor­
tant component of the sediment transport model. However, in the CFD-
DEM model, the sediment flux and Shields number parameters, which
are applicable to the assumption that the seabed is continuous, can’t be
directly extracted due to the discrete nature of the DEM particles.
Therefore, in this section, a conversion method is proposed to convert
particle velocity, drag force, particle phase fraction, and other

14
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 21. Evolution of the scour pit morphology and the velocity vectors of sediment particles at y = 0 profile in front of the pile.
Fig. 22. Evolution of the scour pit morphology and the velocity vectors of sediment particles at x = 0 profile beside the pile.
parameters of discrete phase into the continuous phase parameters such
as sediment flux and Shields number, and based on this, the relationship
between sediment flux and Shields number is analyzed and quantified.
Based on the drag force applied on each particle, the Shields number
at the water-sand interface can be calculated, where the water-sand
interface is defined as the equivalent surface with αp = 0.7. In the
calculation process, the sediment region was sliced in the x-y plane and
divided into several calculation cells. For each calculation cell, the
average Shields number is calculated using Eq. (30). Here,
⃒
∬ f d • tdSα /Sα ⃒αp =α0 converts the drag forces on the water-sand interface
in each calculation cell into the tangential forces parallel to the water-
sand interface and integrates them to the total tangential force. Based
on this, the average shear stress is obtained by dividing the total
tangential force to the area of the water-sand interface.
⃦ ∫∫
⃦ / ⃒ ⃦
⃦ flux, and bedload sediment flux at the x-y plane when t∗ = 0.4 and t ∗ =
u2f τ2 ⃦ f d • tdSα Sα ⃒αp =α0 ⃦
θ= = = ( ) (30)
g(s − 1)d50 gρf (s − 1)d50 g ρ − ρf d50
Where θ is the Shields number, θcr is the critical Shields number, f d is the
vector of drag force, t is the tangential vector on the water-sand surface,
αp is the volume fraction of sediment particles, α0 is the critical sediment
particles’ volume fraction on the water-sand surface, and Sα is the area
of the water-sand surface in the calculation cell.
The sediment flux can be obtained by calculating the average ve­
locity and volume fraction of particles in each CFD grid, but the sedi­
ment flux obtained in this way is a three-dimensional distributed
variable. To make it comparable with the two-dimensional distributed
15
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
Shields number, the sediment flux is integrated along the depth z to
obtain the depth-integrated sediment flux. The dimensionless calcula­
tion formulas for the total sediment flux and the bedload sediment flux
are shown in Eq. (31) and Eq. (32), respectively.
∫ / √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
⃦ ⃦
q∗ = ⃦αp up • t⃦dz (s − 1)gd350 (31)
∫
⃦ ⃦
/ √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
q∗b = ⃦αp up,b • t⃦dz (s − 1)gd350 (32)
Where q∗ is the dimensionless total sediment flux, q∗b is the dimension­
less bedload sediment flux, up is the velocity vector of particles, up,b is
the velocity vector of particles with z ≤ 0.
Fig. 24 shows the distributions of the Shields number, total sediment
2.0. It can be seen that around the pile, the distribution of sediment flux
and Shields number exhibit similar patterns, a circular ring around the
pile with the maximum values located behind the side of the pile. And
influenced by the high-pressure gradient at the pile toe and the wake
vortex at the pile tail, the circular ring is broken at the pile toe and tail,
respectively. This pattern is particularly visible in the bedload sediment
flux distribution but is weakened in the total sediment flux distribution
due to the interference of the suspended load.
When t ∗ = 0.4, it can be seen from Fig. 24(c) and (e) that, a signif­
icant increase in the sediment flux at the pile tail occurred due to the
emergence of the suspended load. However, due to the differences in the
motion mechanisms between suspended load and bedload sediment, as
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 23. Forming mechanism of the scour pit morphology at x = 0 profile beside the pile.
shown in Fig. 24(a) and (c), no clear correlation was observed between
the Shields number and the total sediment flux at the pile tail. Therefore,
this study focuses on the bedload sediment flux and its relationship with
the Shields number rather than the suspended load sediment flux. When
t ∗ = 2.0, the maximum Shields number and sediment flux around the
pile decreased compared with that when t∗ = 0.4, and their distribution
also changed. Comparing Fig. 24(a), (b), (e), and (f), it can be seen that
the location of the maximum Shields number and bedload sediment flux
moved downstream with time, which was consistent with the down­
stream extension of the scour pit.
The MPM formula is a kind of bedload sediment flux equation based
on the experimental data, which is brought out by Meyer-Peter and
Müller (1948). It can describe the relationship between the bedload
sediment flux and the Shields number, with the standard formation as
Eq. (33), in which the parameters a and b are empirically dependent on
the experimental data, the values of a and b in previous studies are listed
in Table 6.
q∗b = a(θ − θcr )b (33)
Where θ is the Shields number, θcr is the critical Shields number, a and b
are the empirical parameters.
The Shields number and the dimensionless bedload sediment flux
were sampled from the points in the scour active area. The specific
sampling locations are shown in Fig. 25. Based on the sediment flux
distribution in Fig. 24, most of the sampling points are arranged behind
the side of the pile. Because these locations have high values of sediment
flux and Shields number, hence can cover a wider range of the sediment
flux and Shields number, which makes them more representative.
Considering the complexity of the sediment initiation mechanism under
the influence of vortex shedding, as shown in the dark area, the wake
area was avioded in the selection of sampling points.
Fig. 26 shows the sampled data of the dimensionless bedload
16
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
sediment flux and the Shields number around the pile at different times
before the scour reached equilibrium (t∗ < 7). According to Eq. (33), the
fitting between the above two parameters was conducted, and the
empirical parameters a and b are fitted to 19.8 and 2, respectively, with
the fitted curve plotted as the solid line in Fig. 26. In the research of
Nagel et al. (2020), the ranges of a and b were estimated as 26.14–31.06
and 1.57–2.09, respectively, which are in good accordance with the
results obtained in this research. The curves with a = 40, b = 2 and a =
10, b = 2 are also plotted in Fig. 26 with dotted lines to represent the
upper boundary and lower boundary of data points. It can be seen that
the curve of a = 10, b = 2 is a suitable lower boundary. And for the
upper boundary, the curve of a = 40, b = 2 can cover most of the data
points with θ ≥ 0.15, while for the data points with θ < 0.15, the curve
tends to underestimate the sediment flux, especially for the data points
with lower Shields number that approaches the critical Shields number.
The possible reason is the ignorance of the effect of the slope angle. On
the slope of scour pit surface, the gravity component along the slope
makes the sediment particles easier to be started up. Under a low Shields
number, the bed shear stress acting on the sediment is much lower,
hence the effect of gravity increases relatively. This leads to a more
significant increase in sediment flux due to gravity.
4.4. Discussion of the CFD-DEM method
4.4.1. Advantages of the CFD-DEM method
The biggest advantage of the CFD-DEM method is that it treats the
sediment as a discrete phase and uses the discrete element method
(DEM) to calculate the movement of sediment particles. Therefore, it is
capable of analyzing the motion and forces of each sediment particle,
and based on this, we can analyze the individual and collective dynamic
characteristics of sediment particles, which can help us to understand
the mesoscopic mechanism of the local scour. Secondly, the CFD-DEM
method can capture the behaviors such as collision, cohesion,
S. Zhang et al. Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334

Fig. 24. Distribution of Shields number, dimensionless integrated depth total sediments flux, and integrated depth bedload sediments flux at the water-sand surface.

coordination between the calculation efficiency and accuracy, which is

Table 6 also pointed out in the research by Liu et al. (2022). For the un-resolved
The values of empirical parameters a and b in previous studies. CFD-DEM method, in order to map the discrete phase properties into the
Researchers a b Eulerian phase mesh and improve the numerical stability of simulation,
Meyer-Peter and Müller (1948) 8 1.5 the size of CFD grid cells should be larger than the size of sediment
Wong and Parker (2006) 3.97–4.93 1.5–1.6 particle, which means that the CFD grid near the wall can’t be finely
Nagel et al. (2020) 26.14–31.06 1.57–2.09 divided, the near-wall flow needs to be estimated using the wall func­
This research 19.8 2
tions, and some flow details inside the boundary layer may be ignored.
This may bring unavoidable errors to the local scour simulation around
separation, and so on between sediment particles, which is helpful in the pile. For the resolved CFD-DEM method, the immersed boundary
achieving a more accurate simulation of the seabed evolution during the method is used to resolve the shape of each particle, which requires the
local scour. Furthermore, the CFD-DEM method can specify random size of CFD grid cells to be less than 1/10 times the particle diameter.
non-uniform particle properties for the discrete phase, hence can The required number of cells in the CFD grid is so huge that even the
simulate the scour in non-uniform and layered sediment conveniently. simulation containing hundreds of particles also needs a long time to
Overall, the CFD-DEM method provides a tool for simulating and complete.
revealing the microscopic phenomena of sediment motion in the process Currently, research on local scour problems is mainly based on the
of sediment transportation and has great potential in the study of local un-resolved CFD-DEM method. However, how to carry out efficient
scour mechanisms. cross-scale simulation has always been an unresolved problem.
Although the coarse grain method and the enlargement of particle size in
4.4.2. Limitations of the CFD-DEM method the lower layer of sediment are helpful in reducing the number of
However, due to the incomplete development of the CFD-DEM sediment particles, the consumption of computational resources to
coupling algorithm and the limitations of the DEM method itself, the simulate the whole process of local scour is still very high.
main limitation of the CFD-DEM method is the difficulty to achieve the Therefore, the authors believe that in the research of local scour

17
S. Zhang et al.
Fig. 25. Sampling locations of sediment flux and Shields number.
Fig. 26. Relationship curve between the dimensionless bedload sediment flux
and Shields number.
around the pile, a potential application of the CFD-DEM method is to
explore the mesoscopic mechanism of scour based on small-scale
simulation. This means using a DEM simulation domain with a size
much smaller than the pile size to investigate the mesoscopic mechanism
of the scour in a certain location around the pile. The small-scale char­
acteristic can reduce the number of particles and allow the size of par­
ticles to be smaller, hence the CFD grid division near the wall can be
finer, and the balance between computational efficiency and accuracy
can be obtained.
5. Conclusion
In this study, a three-dimensional CFD-DEM coupled model was
developed to simulate the local scour around the monopile. This model
18
Coastal Engineering 183 (2023) 104334
uses CFD to solve the flow of water and DEM to calculate the movement
of sediment particles. To enhance computational efficiency, the study
employed the coarse grain method in the CFD-DEM simulations, which
reduced computational resource consumption by 87.5% while main­
taining accurate results in local scour simulation. Furthermore, this
study investigated the relationship between the scour pit morphology
and the angle of repose, it’s pointed out that, inside the scour pit, the
slope angle and scour depth are closely related to the angle of repose,
which is determained by the contact parameters between DEM particles.
Therefore, in order to improve the accuracy in the prediction of scour pit
morphology, a numerical test of the angle of repose is proposed in this
study, and the angle of repose is used to calibrate the contact parameters
between DEM particles.
Through the time dependent curves of scour depth in front of the
pile, it is observed that the CFD-DEM model can accurately predicted the
equilibrium scour depth obtained from exprimentand reproduced the
three stages of scour depth development, including the initial stage,
deceleration stage, and equilibrium stage. And the scour pit morphology
is also in good agreement with that obtained from Euler-Euler two-phase
flow simulation, Therefore, the CFD-DEM model has been validated to
be effective in the simulation of local scour around monopile.
Through analyzing the simulation results of the CFD-DEM model
established above, the following conclusions about the local scour
around the monopile can be drawn.
i). The seepage-induced vertical drag force is a crucial factor in the
early stage of local scour. In the early stage of local scour, due to
the seepage inside the sediment, the maximum vertical drag force
acting on the sediment particles can reach 0.2 times the gravity,
which diminishes part of the gravity acting on sediment particles,
and makes them easier to start up;
ii). Under the working condition in this study, the "Pile toe erosion-
Slope avalanche" process is the main mechanism of sediment
transportation in front of the pile. And the "Push-Accumulation-
Wash" process is the main mechanism of sediment transportation
beside the pile. Among which the "Push-Accumulation-Wash"
process is firstly observed in the existing studies, this may be a
special phenomenon that occurs under larger sediment particle
sizes, but due to the lack of the mesoscopic data of sediment
movement during the local scour process, the correctness and
universality of this phenomenon remains to be verified;
iii). The relationship between the bedload sediment flux and Shields
number can be quantified using the MPM formula, in this study,
the empirical parameters a and b are fitted to 19.8 and 2 in the
MPM formula, respectively, which are in good accordance with
the results obtained by Nagel et al. (2020). However, the bedload
sediment flux was always underestimated at a low Shields num­
ber, which is because of its neglect of the additional sediment
transportation induced by gravity.
At present, the main limitation of the CFD-DEM method is the dif­
ficulty to achieve the coordination between the calculation efficiency
and accuracy. The cross-scale simulation based on the CFD-DEM method
is very expensive for the current computing power. In this research,
although some methods were taken to reduce the number of sediment
particles in CFD-DEM simulation, its consumption of computational
resources to simulate the whole process of local scour was still very high.
In the future, a potential application of the CFD-DEM method is to
explore the mesoscopic mechanism of scour based on the small-scale
simulation, some work relevant to this has recently been brought out
by Yazdanfar et al. (2021) and more applications of the CFD-DEM
method are yet to be discovered.
Author credit statement
Shuye Zhang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation,
S. Zhang et al.
Software, Validation, Dates analysis, Writing – original draft. Boen Li:
Methodology, Investigation, Software, Dates analysis. Huihuan Ma:
Investigation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Funding
acquisition, Resources, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
The authors do not have permission to share data.
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of
China (grant no. 2021YFC3100800, 2021YFC3100803), and Natural
Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (grant no.
2023A1515011022).
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