Hydraulic Design and Preliminary Performance Evaluation of Countermeasure against Debris Accumulation and Resulting Local Pier Scour on River Po in Italy
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 5
Abstract
This paper presents a protection structure built for a bridge pier consisting of six narrow piles. Accumulation of large woody debris upstream of the pile group during high-flow terms might have induced much larger scour depths compared with those expected for the single pile. A phenomenological sketch of the system suggested that accumulation of debris material during peak flows and subsequent descent of the same material during the tail of the events represented a very dangerous two-stage process owing to the high expected scour. Consequently, a countermeasure was designed, consisting of a plate preventing the descent of debris below its elevation. The performance of the plate in reducing local scour was subjected to some preliminary laboratory tests, and satisfactory results were obtained. This paper reports some tentative performance observations for the real structure built on the river, based on the amount of debris trapped during a recent event with moderate flow.
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References
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Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 137 • Issue 5 • May 2011
Pages: 615 - 620
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 10, 2009
Accepted: Oct 8, 2010
Published online: Oct 12, 2010
Published in print: May 1, 2011
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