Live-Bed Scour at Bridge Piers in a Lightweight Polystyrene Bed
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 141, Issue 9
Abstract
Experiments on scour at bridge piers were carried out in a sediment recirculating flume with a bed of polystyrene particles. The focus of the research reported in this paper was given to live-bed experiments. All experiments were run until equilibrium conditions with flow velocities ranging from 0.8–8.5 times the critical velocity for the incipient motion of sediment particles . Maximum scour depth was continuously measured with an endoscopic camera from inside the pier, which was constructed by a plexiglass cylinder. Bed load transport with dunes was identified as the main transport mode for . For ratios of entrainment into suspension without development of bedforms dominated. Results show that scour rapidly reach equilibrium in the bed of polystyrene pellets. In the clear-water experiments equilibrium scour depth remained constant in time. In the bed load region the fluctuation of scour depth corresponded to the dune migration through the scour hole, while in the suspended load region the fluctuation of scour depth was negligible and was superposed by general erosion. For both clear-water and live-bed conditions maximum equilibrium scour depth continuously increased with flow intensity . Maximum scour depth was in accordance with a logarithmic curve and reached values up to 3.3 times the pier diameter for . Extrapolation of the obtained results for an estimation of equilibrium scour depth in a lifelike worst-case scenario is discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support of the German academic exchange service Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Chilean research council (CONICYT) through Grant PCCI 12027 is greatly acknowledged. The third author was also funded by Grant VRID 214.091.047-1.0. The polystyrene material was provided by Mr. Bernd Hentschel from the Federal Waterway Engineering and Research Institute Karlsruhe, Germany. Thanks go to the students Robert Koch and Franziska Richter and the research fellow Stefan Orlik, M.Eng., from the Department for Water and Waste Management of the University of Applied Sciences Magdeburg for their practical work and collaboration during the experimental runs.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 141 • Issue 9 • September 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 11, 2014
Accepted: Feb 23, 2015
Published online: May 4, 2015
Published in print: Sep 1, 2015
Discussion open until: Oct 4, 2015
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