PSI - Issue 84

Luca Vené et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 84 (2026) 529–535

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Fig. 5. Distribution of the pressure variation ΔP along the four foundation piles (upstream, downstream, and lateral) modeled in FLAC3D under the 3-m local scour condition. Line colors correspond to the colors of the piles shown in the foundation plan.

Of particular relevance are the cases with generalized scour depths of 3 m and 4.5 m, shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, respectively, where positive pressure values are observed that effectively nullify, or nearly reduce to zero, the effective stress within the first 30 cm of soil adjacent to the first pile.

Fig. 6. Distribution of effective stresses within the first 1 m of depth in the foundation piles for the 3 m general scour condition, highlighting negative or near-zero effective stress values in the upper soil layers. The color of each curve corresponds to a different pile.

Fig. 7. Distribution of effective stresses within the first 1 m of depth in the foundation piles for the 4.5 m general scour condition, highlighting negative or near-zero effective stress values in the upper soil layers. The color of each curve corresponds to a different pile.