Evaluation of dynamic impact of flow with bridge pier using smoothed particle hydrodynamics method

This paper presents a numerical model for the hydrodynamic impact of water flow with a bridge pier placed on a group of piles using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method. A new boundary processing technique using a combination of ghost particles and dynamic boundary particles is implemented in the SPH simulations of this study. The numerical probes are uniformly distributed over the vertical surface of the structure in order to obtain detailed measurements of the flow pressure on the structure over time. Using the SPH simulations, the velocity field of the unstable flow surrounding the piles and the equivalent hydrodynamic force acting on the pile cap are determined. The vulnerable impact locations on the structure surface are also predicted from the time-pressure histories. Additionally, the predicted hydrodynamic pressure values are compared with those proposed by AASHTO (2012) for bridge design considerations.