Influence of Pier Geometry and Debris Characteristics on Wood Debris Accumulations at Bridge Piers
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper analyzes the influence of the geometry of bridge piers and supplied debris on the formation and growth of wood debris jams at bridge piers. A total of 162 laboratory experiments were conducted. Experimental results showed that the maximum size of debris jams formed by the accumulation of cylindrical debris (i.e., wooden dowels) is smaller than that of jams formed by natural nonbranched wood of irregular shape. In addition, experiments with branched debris resulted in jams that were significantly smaller and less stable than those with nonbranched natural debris. Finally, comparison of experiments conducted with six different pier shapes indicated that the shape of the pier has negligible effects on the maximum size of a woody debris jam. The only exception to this observation was for square piers, which showed slightly larger debris jam sizes than the other types of piers tested.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository online in accordance with funder data retention policies. Data supporting the results presented in this paper are openly available from the University of Southampton repository at DOI: https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/D0916.
Acknowledgments
The authors received financial support for this research by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Infrastructure Systems (CDT-SIS), Grant No. EP/L01582X/1. Part of this research was also funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Grant No. NE/R009015/1. The authors are grateful to Dr. Toru Tsuzaki and Mr. Karl Scammell of the University of Southampton Hydraulics Laboratory for the technical and material support in carrying out the experiments and are also thankful to the M.Sc. Student Matthew Choi for helping with part of the experimental work.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 146 • Issue 6 • June 2020
Copyright
©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 5, 2018
Accepted: Dec 3, 2019
Published online: Mar 30, 2020
Published in print: Jun 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Aug 30, 2020
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