Wire Gabion for Protecting Bridge Piers
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 11
Abstract
As a new alternative countermeasure to riprap for scour protection around bridge piers, wire gabions were investigated experimentally for failure mechanisms, effects of significant parameters on failure and its sizing in a clear-water condition. The dominating failure mechanism was found to be a shear failure. Based on the experimental data, the controlling factors for the stability of wire gabions as a scour countermeasure at the pier are flow depth relative to pier diameter, length to thickness ratio, coverage, alignment and placement depth of wire gabions. An equation for sizing of a wire gabion is proposed in terms of Froude number and factors reflecting both the effect and limit of significant parameters. Comparison of the equation with those of ripraps shows that smaller wire gabions than ripraps provide an equivalent protection implying cost effective and improved stability.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support by the Korean Highway Corporation is gratefully acknowledged. The valuable comments and suggestions by the reviewers of the paper and the Associate Editor are appreciated and thanks are due to Jaejin Lee, who carried out most of the experimental works and data manipulations.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 11 • November 2005
Pages: 942 - 949
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 13, 2002
Accepted: Oct 27, 2004
Published online: Nov 1, 2005
Published in print: Nov 2005
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