Temporal Evolution of Clear-Water Local Scour at Bridge Piers with Flow-Dependent Debris Accumulations
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 147, Issue 10
Abstract
Previous research has shown that local scour at bridge piers is severely increased by the accumulation of woody debris around piers. However, due to the unavailability of accurate information regarding the characteristics of formed debris jams, the shape and dimensions of accumulations tested in previous laboratory experiments have had to be assumed. This article provides an assessment of debris-induced scour based on recently available knowledge about the relation between the potential dimensions of debris accumulations, the characteristics of flow, and debris elements. Clear-water scour experiments (with and without debris accumulation) were conducted using debris models with shape and size that correspond to the particular flow characteristics of each experiment. The results showed that scour depths obtained with flow-dependent debris accumulations were larger than without accumulations by a factor ranging from 1.18–2.19. The analysis of the scour depths affected by the accumulations suggested similar characteristics as well as dependence on the flow intensity, blockage area ratio, and depth ratio.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These include:
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File with all scour depth measurements per experiment.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by NERC, Grant reference No. NE/R009015/1. The first author was partly funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through Programa Juan de la Cierva 2016 (FJCI-2016-28009). The authors would like to thank Dr. Toru Tsuzaki, experimental officer in the Hydraulic laboratory at the University of Southampton, for his assistance during the time this research was accomplished, as well as Mr. Marco Campriani, M.Sc. student at the Politecnico di Torino, who contributed to the experimental campaigns.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 147 • Issue 10 • October 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 23, 2020
Accepted: Apr 27, 2021
Published online: Jul 20, 2021
Published in print: Oct 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Dec 20, 2021
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