Scour Mechanics of Aggregate Obstacle Fields with Application to Mine Countermeasures

摘要

We seek to understand the leading order processes and develop quantitative modeling skill for the problem of scour and burial of solid objects on a sedimentary bed in geophysical flows. (1) Identify leading order processes; (2) formulate the model and write the computer code; (3) establish a database with seasonal and climatic variability of wave forcing and sediment budget inputs to initialize and calibrate the model; (4) validate the model in a contemporary field experiment with modern mines of various shapes; (5) determine the relative strength of various scour and burial mechanisms and the sensitivity of those mechanisms to the fluid forcing history and episodic sediment fluxes; and, (6) exploit the results of the field and numerical experiments to pose potential mine countermeasures.