Study on the mechanism of soil erosion by submerged water jet vertical scouring in cohesive soils

The water jet trenching technique is widely used in the burial of submarine pipelines. However, its application in cohesive soils often leads to complexity in trench morphology and challenges in predicting trench dimensions due to unclear soil erosion mechanisms. These issues significantly impact pipeline burials. To investigate the soil erosion mechanism of water jet trenching in cohesive soils, two-dimensional physical simulation experiments of submerged vertical water jet erosion were conducted. The influence of jet pressure, impingement height, and nozzle diameter on the shape of the scour hole was analyzed. The erosion damage patterns of water jets on cohesive soils were studied, and a theoretical model for the development of scour holes was established. The study revealed that when the jet velocity reaches 1000 m/s and the nozzle diameter reaches 1 mm, a contracted neck forms at the upper part of the scour hole. The appearance of the contracted neck is due to excessive jet impact energy causing impact shear failure in the soil. The effective height and width of the contracted neck increase with jet pressure and nozzle diameter and decrease with impingement height. Based on Prandtl's bearing capacity model, a model for predicting impact shear failure in cohesive soils was established, and a predictive formula for the effective height and diameter of the neck was proposed. Experimental validation confirmed the accuracy of the predictive formula. These findings provide theoretical support for the application of water jet trenching techniques in cohesive seabed soils.