Numerical study of scour phenomena around a submarine pipeline

Abstract

Modern CFD confronts significant difficulties in modeling the physics of twophase flows and developing numerical tools for their simulation. In contrast to single-phase flows, where the underlying physics is well understood and relatively general numerical methods can be used in flow simulations, the physical phenomena that occur in two-phase flows are far more versatile and still not completely understood. The difficulties in two-phase flow modeling stem from the large differences between various types of flow configurations and the complex flow conditions associated with them. Throughout the last few decades, various modeling approaches and numerical methods have been developed and applied in this context. This process resulted in the conclusion that the applicability of a specific modeling approach is highly dependent on the type of two-phase flow configuration involved. In other words, before selecting a solution method, it is important to carefully identify the underlying physics in order to select an appropriate numerical approach to simulate a specific two-phase flow problem on a computer [13].