Coastal Engineering Practice 2011 © ASCE 2011 650

THE HUB EFFECT on a PROPELLER SCOUR AROUND a PİLE

Kubilay Cihan1, Ayşe Yüksel Ozan2 , Yalçın Yüksel3

Department of Civil Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, 34210,
Esenler/Istanbul, Turkey.
1
Dr., kubilaycihan@gmail.com, Tel: +90 212 3832932, Fax: +90 212 3835133
2
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Dr., ayuksel@yildiz.edu.tr, Tel: +90 212 3832931, Fax: +90 212 3835133
3
Prof. Dr., yuksel@yildiz.edu.tr, Tel: +90 212 3832924, Fax: +90 212 3835133

ABSTRACT
Propeller induced scour has been taken big attention in last three decades. Erosion
caused by propeller jets around berting structures has been an important research
subject in engineering area for years. In this study, the hub effect on a propeller scour
around a pile was searched. The experiments were performed in a laboratory flume
in Yıldız Technical University, Hydraulics and Coastal Engineering Laboratory. A
1/1.5 slope with coarse gravel and rip-rap layer with fine gravel were considered.
Pile was constructed at the toe of the slope. Firstly experiments were performed for
free propeller jet and then for hub jet. The propeller has 0.1 m diameter and the hub
has 0.104 m diameter and 0.3 m length. The experiments were conducted for 560
rpm, 690 rpm and 820 rpm. The results of free and hub propeller jet were compared
and it is found that hub causes decrease in scour.

KEYWORDS: Scour, Propeller, Pile, Armoured slope

1. INTRODUCTION
Incredible increases in ship dimensions and installed engine power, introduction of
new types of ships with bow thrusters in recent years yield very important local scour
problems at the seabed, the sloping banks of navigation channels, quay structures
(e.g. walls and piles) which in many cases threatens to undermine berth structures
and sloping banks. Scour protection for underwater structures and pipelines, quay
piles and walls are genarally designed with riprap. This riprap sturucture are built
with different size of gravels.
In general, scour is dangerous to any kind of marine structures.Verhey (1983) studied
on the stability of bottom and banks subjected to the velocities caused by propeller
jet. He presented a method to predict, approximately the velocities behind a propeller
of manoeuvring ships. Verhagen (2001) achieved a study on bowthrusters and the
stability of a riprap revetment. Verhagen (2001) made an analyse to simulate
propeller jet and studied on Shields and Izbash methods which can be used for
stability of riprap on a slope attacked by propeller flow.
Schokking (2002) investigated the stability of stones in propeller-induced jet wash on
a slope using an experimental model. Schokking (2002) considered ducted and non-
ducted propeller and 1/3 slope ratio in his study. Schokking (2002) found out that the
damage on a slope occurs at the lowest part of the slope. Additionally, Schokking
(2002) performed a field study in the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal to see the effect of
bowthrusters in inland waterways. He stated that the scour tends to be shallow and
widespread at long- straight quays. Beside this, short quays or quays with geometric

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anomalies lead to consistent berthing vessels, which leads to the development of

deeper, concentrated scour holes.
Yuksel et.al. (2005) studied on propeller jet scour around pile and pile groups on a
sand bed. They used submerged round jet flow to simulate propeller jet flow. Roubos
and Verhagen (2007) investigated design formulas for bed protections in the port of
Rotterdam. They made a risk based analysis to evaluate the different strategies and
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their consequences. Raikar and Dey (2009) performed a study on maximum scour
depth at piers in armor-beds. They presented a design method to determine the
maximum equilibrium scour depth at piers embedded in a sand-bed overlain by a thin
armor-layer of gravels. Ozan and Yuksel (2010) studied on simulaton of a 3D
submerged jet flow around a pile to investigate propeller jet effect around a pile on a
sand bed. They also used submerged round jet flow to simulate propeller jet flow.
PIANC (1997) presented a guideline for the designed armoured slopes under open
quay walls. However, there are still unclear problems on the design of these
structures and needs extensive studies for the pile type quays under propeller jets. In
this study, the propeller induced scour around the pile type berth structures was
investigated. The aim of this study is to find out the effect of propeller (in a hub and
without a hube) jet flow on the stability armoured slopes under berth structures. To
achieve this, scour measurements were conducted in the experiments. Armour layer
damages on the slope were defined using a damage level parameter which is given
by Van der Meer (1988).

2. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
The study was conducted in a laboratory flume in Hydraulic and Coastal Engineering
Laboratory, Yıldız Technical University. Both sides of flume were made of glass. It
includes a propeller system. Propeller rotation was controlled with an automation
panel. Experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 1. Experimental set up

Characteristics of the propeller used in the experiments are presented in Table 1. The
propeller was replaced 19 cm above the bed.

Table 1. Propeller characteristics

Propeller diameter, Dp 10 cm
Blade number, N 4
Pitch ratio, P’ 1.4
Blade area ratio, β 0.4
Thrust coefficient, Ct 0.51

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The cylindrical pile was made of plexiglass and placed at the begining of the slope
and on the propeller axis. The fixed water depth was 48 cm above the bed which
corresponds to the top of the slope.
The eroded area (A) is the function of the following variables:
( )
A = f1 U 0 , D p , Dn50 , D, X , Z , ρ , g , μ , ρ s , h = 0
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(1)

where U0 is efflux velocity, Dp is propeller diameter, Dn50 is median gravel size, D is

pile dimater, X is horizontal distance between propeller and slope, Z is vertical
distance between propeller axis and bed, ρ is density of fluid, g is acceleration of
gravity, μ is dynamic viscosity of fluid, ρs is density of gravel and h is water depth.
Efflux velocity is calculated from the following equation given by Blaauw et al.
(1978):
U 0 = nD p Ct
(2)
where n is number of propeller revolutions per second and Ct is propeller thrust
coefficient. By dimensional analysis, the non-dimensional parameters were obtained
as follows;
( )
F Re, h Dn50 , D Dn50 , X Dn50 , Z Dn50 , A Dn250 , Frd2 , D p Dn50 , ρ s ρ = 0
(3)
Rajaratnam (1981) studied on the erosion produced by a plain jet and defined that if
Re>104, the effect of viscosity could be neglected. In this study, the values of
Reynolds number were calculated between 1.2×104 and 2.2×104. Therefore, the
effect of viscosity could be neglected. Moreover, water depth, propeller diameter,
propeller distance to the slope and bed, pile diameter, gravel median diameter were
considered constant.
Densimetric Froude nember was defined as
Frd = U 0 gDn50 ( ρ s − ρ ρ )
(4)
where, U0 jet exit velocity, d50 mean sediment diameter, ρs sediment density, ρ water
density.
Slope was composed with coarse gravel and protection layer was composed with fine
gravel. The dimension ratio of coarse gravel to fine gravel was chosen as 2.1 in the
experiments. The characteristics of the gravels were given in Table 2.

Table 2 Characteristics of the gravels

dn50 (mm) dn60 (mm) dn90 (mm)
Coarse gravel dcn50=8.62 9.53 12.54
Fine gravel dfn50=4.00 4.50 6.05

In order to get the erosion areas, the scour profiles were measured with electronically
indicating point gauge before and after tests.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Case 1: propeller rotates freely in a body of water

The variations of the cumulative scour and accumulation along the slope at the
propeller axis are presented in Figure 2. Here, Δz = z f − zi and zf is final elevation
and zi is initial elevation. Accumulated area at downstream of pile was clearly seen
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in Figure 2. Gravels on slope replaced due to propeller jet and they moved down on
slope becaues of gravity. Therefore, eroded area developed towards crest. While
profiles occured for 690 rpm and 820 rpm are almost same, profile for 560 rpm is
different. The accumulation and erosion areas increases with increasing rpm.

Figure 2 The variation of the scour and accumulation along the slope

Case 2: propeller rotates in a hub

The variations of the cumulative scour and accumulation along the slope at the
propeller axis are presented in Figure 3. Accumulated area at downstream of pile was
clearly seen in Figure 3. Eroded area developed towards crest. The profiles occured
for 690 rpm and 820 rpm are similar like Case 1, the profile for 560 rpm is different.
The accumulation and erosion areas increases with increasing rpm.

Figure 3 Profiles of the slope for different propeller rotations

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The variations of the cumulative scour and accumulation along the slope at the
propeller axis for Case 1 and Case 2 are presented together in Figure 4. It is seen that
deformations on slope for Case 1 are larger than Case 2.
Schokking (2002) declared that the free-propeller jet carried almost %40 higher
relative turbulance. And also he said that the velocity decrease for the ducted
propeller was a lot smaller than the free one. So results of differences between
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deformations on slope for Case 1 and Case 2 can be differences on velocity and
relative turbulance.

a) For 560 rpm

b) For 690 rpm

c) For 820 rpm

Figure 4 Profiles of the slope for Case 1 and Case 2

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Armoured materials on slope resists to environmental loading with its weight

individually. Its response against external forces is different from other type material
like sand. Therefore, instead of scour depth, damage parameter (S) was used to
determine effect of propeller jet on pile groups placed armoured slope.The damage
parameter is defined by using Van der Meer’s (1988) formula. This damage level is
defined by
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-A
S= 2 (5)
Dn50
where S is the damage level, -A is the erosion area, and Dn50 is the nominal diameter
for the rock. According to Van der Meer (1988) the level of the start of the damage,
S=2-3, is equal to the definition of “no damage” and “failure” is equivalent to S=8
for a two-diameter-thick armor layer on a filter layer and for a slope of 1:1.5.
Damage levels on the slope for Case 1 and Case 2 are shown in Figure 5. The
damage level increases with increasing the densimetric Froude Number and also
damage level is higher for Case 1

Figure 5 Damage levels on the slope

The cumulative variations of the scour along the protection layer in front of the pile
at different rpm values for Case 1 and Case 2 were also presented together in Figure
6. On the apron, generally the propeller jet mechanism is active and eroded area
increases with increasing rpm. Therefore, in a distance at the upstream of the pile,
there are accumulation areas. In this zone, pile mechanism is active and downflow
due to the pile obstruction acts on protection material. But the pile obstruction causes
the decrease on the jet energy. And also gravels moves down on the slope due to
propeller jet and they develops accumulation areas.

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a) For 560 rpm

b) For 690 rpm

c) 820 rpm
Figure 6 The cumulative variations of the scour along the protection layer in front of
the pile for Case 1 and Case 2

CONCLUSION
In this study, the propeller induced scour around the pile type berth structures was
investigated. The aim of this study is to find out the effect of propeller (in a hub and
without a hube) jet flow on the stability armoured slopes under berth structures.
The damage level increases with increasing the densimetric Froude Number and also
damage level is higher for Case 1.
Deformations on slope for Case 1 are larger than Case 2.
On the apron, generally the propeller jet mechanism is active and eroded area
increases with increasing rpm. On the other hand, gravels moves down on the slope

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due to propeller jet and they develops accumulation areas at upstream of the pile for
all cases.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are thankful for the financial support of The Research Fund of Yildiz
Technical University.
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PIANC, 1997, “Guidelines for the design of armoured slopes under open piled quay
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Roubos, A., Verhagen, H.J., (2007) “Uncertainties in the Design of Bed Protections
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Yuksel, A., Celikoglu, Y., Cevik, E., Yuksel, Y., 2005, “Jet Scour around Vertical
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pile”, Ocean Engineering, v. 37, Issue 8-9, pp 819-832.

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