Suction Effects on Bridge Pier Scour under Clear-Water Conditions
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 6
Abstract
The experimental study investigates how the application of point suction at different bed locations affects local scour around a cylindrical bridge pier under clear-water conditions. The results show that suction has a profound effect on pier-scour development, and the extent of the influence is related to the location of the suction source. When the suction source is located at or upstream of the pier, the equilibrium scour depth is reduced by up to 50%, with , where and = suction flow rate and undisturbed approach flow rate, respectively. The data also show that for the suction source that is located downstream of the pier, the equilibrium scour depth is reduced by up to 30% with the same suction flow rate. The extent of pier-scour depth reduction at different locations from the suction source is closely associated with changes to the local effective shear and critical shear velocity. Results of this study show that bed suction may be used as an effective pier-scour countermeasure.
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Acknowledgments
The first author wishes to acknowledge the funding support for this project from Nanyang Technological University under the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) program. The authors also wish to thank Ms. Chen Yingying for conducting some of the experiments in the study.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 6 • June 2013
Pages: 621 - 629
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 23, 2012
Accepted: Nov 19, 2012
Published online: Nov 21, 2012
Published in print: Jun 1, 2013
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