Design Method of Time-Dependent Local Scour at Circular Bridge Pier

A reliable prediction of local scour depth related to hydrological characteristics such as peak discharge, and time corresponding to the equilibrium scour depth is essential for the efficient design of bridge pier foundation. In this paper, a design method to predict the local scour depth with time is proposed. An experimental program was carried out using a cylindrical pier placed in uniform beds under clear-water flows. The pier scour depth was calculated on the basis of a sediment transport equation. Equilibrium local scour depth is reached when the bed-shear stress tends to critical bed-shear stress in the scour hole. Hence, changes to bed-shear stress at the circular bridge pier should be incorporated in the sediment transport theory. The proposed method follows experimental data of various sources.     

SRICOS: Prediction of Scour Rate in Cohesive Soils at Bridge Piers

A new method called SRICOS is proposed to predict the scour depth z versus time t around a cylindrical bridge pier of diameter D founded in clay. The steps involved are: (1) taking samples at the bridge pier site; (2) testing them in an erosion function apparatus to obtain the scour rate ? versus the hydraulic shear stress applied τ; (3) predicting the maximum shear stress τmax, which will be induced around the pier by the water flowing at vo before the scour hole starts to develop; (4) using the measured ? versus τ curve to obtain the initial scour rate ?i corresponding to τmax; (5) predicting the maximum depth of scour zmax for the pier; (6) using ?i and zmax to develop the hyperbolic function describing the scour depth z versus time t curve; and (7) reading the z versus t curve at a time corresponding to the duration of the flood to find the scour depth that will develop around that pier. A new apparatus is developed to measure the ? versus t curve of step 2, a series of advanced numerical simulations are performed to develop an equation for the τmax value of step 3, and a series of flume tests are performed to develop an equation for the zmax value of step 5. The method is evaluated by comparing predictions and measurements in 42 flume experiments.     

Bridge Pier Scour in Clay-Sand Mixed Sediments at Near-Threshold Velocity for Sand

Local scour at circular bridge piers embedded in a clay-sand-mixed bed was investigated in laboratory flume experiments. The effects of clay content, water content, and sand size on maximum equilibrium scour depth, equilibrium scour hole geometry, scouring process, and time variation of scour were studied at velocities close to the threshold velocities for the sand in the clay-sand mixture. It was observed that clay content and water content were the key parameters that effect the scouring process, scour hole geometry, and maximum equilibrium scour depth. The bridge pier scouring process in clay-sand mixtures involved different dominating modes for removal of sediment from scour hole: chunks-of-aggregates, aggregate-by-aggregate, and particle-by-particle. Regression-based equations for estimation of nondimensional maximum scour depth and scour hole diameter for piers embedded in clay-sand mixtures having clay content of <40% and water content of <40% were proposed as functions of pier Froude number, clay content, water content, and bed shear strength.     

Scour Vulnerability of River Bridge Piers

A simple procedure is proposed to assess the vulnerability of bridge piers in rivers, taking into account the phenomena governing fluvial dynamics during flood events. The procedure requires an estimation of the maximum scour depth of the soil surrounding both the pier and the foundation as well as an analysis of the bearing capacity of the pier–foundation–soil geotechnical system. The scour depth is determined in terms of the physical and mechanical properties of the streambed soil, the shape of the pier foundation and the destabilizing effects induced by hydrodynamic forces. The coupling of both the hydraulic and geotechnical analyses enables to identify the most significant factors characterizing scour depth and affecting pier vulnerability. Two levels (low, medium) of allowable vulnerability, bounded by an extreme condition of high vulnerability, are defined and analytically determined in function of the maximum scour depth and the foundation depth. Specific diagrams corresponding to each category of foreseen actions allow a quick evaluation of the vulnerability of a bridge pier.     

Influence of Wood Debris Accumulation on Bridge Pier Scour

This note deals with the influence of debris accumulation on scour around bridge piers. Clear-water experiments in different hydraulic conditions have been carried out with three wood debris shapes: rectangular, triangular, and cylindrical. A wide range of debris thickness and width were studied in order to determine their influence on the maximum scour hole depth temporal evolution. The ratio of the pier diameter to the channel width was varied between 0.05 and 0.12 with total bridge contractions up to 20%. A proposed relation presents a simple design procedure to predict the increase in scour depth, which mainly depends on the flow contraction due to the debris accumulation.     

Effects of Inclination of Bridge Piers on Scouring Depth

For a safe design of a bridge pier footing, it is important to estimate the maximum depth of scour as accurately as possible. The aim of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of inclination of bridge piers on local scour depths around bridge piers. Single circular piers inclined toward the downstream direction were founded in a uniform bed material. Near threshold conditions were employed. The results of this study indicate that the local scour depth decreases as the inclination of the pier increases.     

Effect of Sediment Size Scaling on Physical Modeling of Bridge Pier Scour

Local pier scour experiments were performed in the laboratory to investigate the effect of relative sediment size on pier scour depth using three uniform sediment sizes and three bridge pier designs at different geometric model scales. When the data from a large number of experimental and field investigations are filtered according to a Froude number criterion, the effect of relative sediment size on dimensionless pier scour depth is brought into focus. The choice of sediment size in the laboratory model distorts the value of the ratio of pier width to sediment size in comparison with the prototype which in turn causes larger values of scour depth in the laboratory than in the field. This model distortion due to sediment size is shown to be related to the scaling of the large-scale unsteadiness of the horseshoe vortex by studying the relevant time scales of its coherent structure upstream of a bridge pier using acoustic Doppler velocimeter measurements. Observations of sediment movement, probability distributions of velocity components, and phase-averaging of velocity measured upstream of a bridge pier reveal properties of coherent motions that are discussed in terms of their contribution to the relationship between dimensionless pier scour depth and the ratio of pier width to sediment size over a large range of physical scales.     

Control of Scour at Bridge Piers by a Downstream Bed Sill

Results are presented from laboratory experiments to investigate the effectiveness of bed sills as countermeasures against local scouring at a smooth circular bridge pier, for flow conditions near the threshold of uniform sediment motion. The bed sill was located downstream of the pier, and its effectiveness with the distance between pier and sill was evaluated. The dependence of the scour depth on different dimensionless groups was defined. The results showed that a bed sill placed at a short distance downstream of the pier reduces the scour depth, area, and volume. In particular, the smaller the distance between the two structures, the larger the effectiveness of the countermeasure. The bed sill seems to take effect some time after the beginning of the test, as the scour hole downstream of the bridge pier develops sufficiently and interacts with the countermeasure.     

Probabilistic Seismic Demand Models and Fragility Estimates for Reinforced Concrete Highway Bridges with One Single-Column Bent

In performance-based seismic design, general and practical seismic demand models of structures are essential. This paper proposes a general methodology to construct probabilistic demand models for reinforced concrete (RC) highway bridges with one single-column bent. The developed probabilistic models consider the dependence of the seismic demands on the ground motion characteristics and the prevailing uncertainties, including uncertainties in the structural properties, statistical uncertainties, and model errors. Probabilistic models for seismic deformation, shear, and bivariate deformation-shear demands are developed by adding correction terms to deterministic demand models currently used in practice. The correction terms remove the bias and improve the accuracy of the deterministic models, complement the deterministic models with ground motion intensity measures that are critical for determining the seismic demands, and preserve the simplicity of the deterministic models to facilitate the practical application of the proposed probabilistic models. The demand data used for developing the models are obtained from 60 representative configurations of finite-element models of RC bridges with one single-column bent subjected to a large number of representative seismic ground motions. The ground motions include near-field and ordinary records, and the soil amplification due to different soil characteristics is considered. A Bayesian updating approach and an all possible subset model selection are used to assess the unknown model parameters and select the correction terms. Combined with previously developed capacity models, the proposed seismic demand models can be used to estimate the seismic fragility of RC bridges with one single-column bent. Seismic fragility is defined as the conditional probability that the demand quantity of interest attains or exceeds a specified capacity level for given values of the earthquake intensity measures. As an application, the univariate deformation and shear fragilities and the bivariate deformation-shear fragility are assessed for an example bridge.     

Stochastic Flow Analysis for Predicting River Scour of Cohesive Soils

Damage to bridge crossings during flood events endangers the lives of the traveling public and causes costly disruptions to traffic flow. The most common causes of bridge collapse are scouring of the streambed and banks and erosion of highway embankments. This study couples a synthetic river flow simulation technique with a scour model for cohesive soils and determines the expected scour depth for a given lifetime of the bridge. A fractionally differenced autoregressive integrated moving average model generates synthetic streamflow sequences of the same length as the expected lifetime of the bridge. The scour model predicts the progression of scour depth through time in a multilayered soil. The model is used to determine the scour depth associated with different replicates of the synthetic flow sequences of the same length as the lifetime of the bridge. The probability distribution of scour depth is estimated by repeating this simulation procedure over a number of independent realizations of streamflow series for a given life of the bridge. This approach provides a framework for the probabilistic design and risk analysis of bridge foundations subjected to scour.     

Local Scour and Riprap Stability at Bridge Piers in a Degrading Channel

The experimental study examines local scouring and riprap stability at bridge piers in rivers subject to bed degradation. The data show that the equilibrium bed profile associated with that with or without a pier is essentially the same, except for the obvious section around the pier. Total scour depth is shown to be the sum of bed degradation and pier scour depth. The latter can be computed from the time-average live-bed scour depth associated with the undisturbed velocity ratio before bed degradation. The experimental data also show that pier-scour depth is invariant with time, for t ≥ 24?h. In a degrading channel, riprap around a pier will eventually develop into a stable mound when the bed shear stresses reduce with bed degradation. An auxiliary test shows that the mound is very vulnerable to another designed flood flow accompanied by large dunes. This type of riprap instability may be called bed-degradation induced failure.     

Temporal Variation of Scour Depth at Nonuniform Cylindrical Piers

The paper proposes a semiempirical model to estimate the temporal development of scour depth at cylindrical piers with unexposed foundations. A cylindrical pier with a foundation is considered as nonuniform pier. The concept of primary vortex and the principle of volumetric rate of sediment transport are used to develop a methodology to characterize the rate of evolution of the scour hole at nonuniform cylindrical piers. The model also simulates the entire scouring process at nonuniform cylindrical piers having the discontinuous surface located below the initial bed level. The scouring process includes three zones; viz Zone 1 having the scouring phenomenon similar to that of a uniform pier, Zone 2 in which the scour depth remains unchanged with its value equal to the depth of the top level of foundation below the initial bed level while the dimensions of the scour hole increase, and in Zone 3 the geometry pier foundation influences the scouring process. A concept of superposition using an effective pier diameter is proposed to simulate the scouring process in Zone 3. In addition, the laboratory experiments were conducted to utilize the laboratory results for the validation of the model. The simulated results obtained from the proposed model are in good agreement with the present experimental results and also other experimental data. Also, the effect of unsteadiness of flow is incorporated in the model and the results of the model are compared with the experimental data. The model agrees satisfactorily with the experimental data.     

Temporal Evolution of Plunge Pool Scour

The temporal development of plunge pool scour was investigated using a novel experimental approach. Longitudinal profiles along the scour hole were recorded with an optical method to allow its definition at any time, from the initiation of scour to nearly the end-scour condition. The characteristics of the scour hole geometry were investigated, namely the maximum scour hole depth, the maximum ridge height, and their locations relative to the scour hole origin. It is demonstrated that the evolution is logarithmic, similar to that found for bridge pier and abutment scour. A distinction is further made between the developing and the developed scour hole phases. The main issue of the present research was to define the developed scour hole characteristics because the developing scour phase is influenced by turbulence features that may be difficult to assess. This work therefore allows for an appreciation of the temporal evolution of a scour process of engineering interest.     

Bridge Pier Scour under Flood Waves

The effect of a single-peaked flood wave on pier scour is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The conditions considered involve clear-water scour of a cohesionless material of given median sediment size and sediment nonuniformity, an approach flow characterized by a flow depth and velocity, a circular-shaped cylindrical bridge pier, and a flood hydrograph defined by its time to peak and peak discharge. A previously proposed formula for scour advance under a constant discharge was applied to the unsteady approach flow. The generalized temporal scour development along with the end scour depth are presented in terms of mainly the densimetric particle Froude number based on the maximum approach flow velocity and the median sediment size. The effect of the remaining parameters on the end scour depth is discussed and predictions are demonstrated to be essentially in agreement with model observations.     

Clear-Water Scour at Piers in Sand Beds with an Armor Layer of Gravels

Clear-water scour at circular and square piers, embedded in a sand bed overlain by a thin armor layer of gravels, was experimentally studied. Depending on the pier width, flow depth, armor gravel, and bed-sand sizes, three cases of scour holes at piers in armored beds were recognized. A comparison of the experimental data shows that the scour depth at a pier with an armor layer under limiting stability of the surface particles is greater than that without an armor layer for the same bed sediments, if the secondary armoring formed within the scour hole is scattered. The equations of maximum equilibrium scour depths at piers in armored beds for these cases are proposed. On the other hand, the scour depth with an armor layer is less than that without an armor layer for the same bed sediments, when the scour hole is shielded by the compact secondary armor layer.     

Flume Tests for Scour in Clay at Circular Piers

Local scour at circular piers founded on clay was studied experimentally in the laboratory to compare the depth of scour in sand and in clay and to investigate the effects of the Reynolds number, Froude number, and approach flow depth on scour depth. The depths of scour in front, at the side, and in the back of the piers were measured as a function of time under steady, gradually varied flow conditions. The measured scour-depth-versus-time curves were fitted with a hyperbola to estimate the equilibrium scour depths. The extrapolated equilibrium scour depths were compared with values predicted by the Federal Highway Administration equation. The results showed that although the rates of scour were much slower in clay than in sand, equilibrium scour in clay was about the same as in sand. It was found that the shape of the scour hole correlates with the pier Reynolds number. At low Reynolds numbers, the depth of scour was about the same all around the piers. At higher Reynolds numbers, the scour holes developed mainly behind the piers with much less scour in front of the piers. It was also found that the extrapolated equilibrium scour depth correlates well with the pier Reynolds number and that the Froude number and relative water depth did not have a significant effect on the scour depth for these experimental conditions.     

Wire Gabion for Protecting Bridge Piers

As a new alternative countermeasure to riprap for scour protection around bridge piers, wire gabions were investigated experimentally for failure mechanisms, effects of significant parameters on failure and its sizing in a clear-water condition. The dominating failure mechanism was found to be a shear failure. Based on the experimental data, the controlling factors for the stability of wire gabions as a scour countermeasure at the pier are flow depth relative to pier diameter, length to thickness ratio, coverage, alignment and placement depth of wire gabions. An equation for sizing of a wire gabion is proposed in terms of Froude number and factors reflecting both the effect and limit of significant parameters. Comparison of the equation with those of ripraps shows that smaller wire gabions than ripraps provide an equivalent protection implying cost effective and improved stability.     

New Experimental Method to Find Equilibrium Scour at Bridge Piers

A new methodology for the experimental analysis of the equilibrium scour depth at bridge piers is introduced and validated for clear-water conditions. The proposed experimental methodology determines the flow conditions for a given equilibrium scour instead of determining the equilibrium scour for given flow conditions, which is the usual practice. The basic hypothesis is that the shape of the scour hole is essentially related to the scour depth and sediment properties, but not to flow conditions. This hypothesis is checked experimentally. The proposed methodology may drastically reduce the time period required for experiments (from weeks to hours), and avoids the uncertainties due to the equilibrium scour being usually achieved asymptotically. Some preliminary results of the equilibrium scour obtained with the proposed methodology are compared to the expressions given in the literature, showing fair agreement.     

Evolution of Scour Depth at Circular Bridge Piers

Experiments of bridge pier scour are carried out under steady and unsteady clear-water scour conditions with uniform and nonuniform sediments. Around the pier nose, the sediment size variation of surface bed materials is investigated, and a regressed formula is obtained for estimating the mixing layer thickness in terms of median sediment size and geometric standard deviation of grain size distribution. A method based on the mixing layer concept is developed for calculating the equilibrium scour depth in nonuniform sediment. Based on the experimental data of scour rate, a model simulating the scour-depth evolution under steady flow in nonuniform sediment is presented. By analyzing experimental data, a scheme is proposed for computing the scour-depth evolution under unsteady flow.     

Reduction of Local Scour around Bridge Piers Using Slots and Collars

The present study examines the use of pier slots and collars for reducing local scour at bridge piers. The efficacy of slots, of different lengths and at different angles of attack, was studied through experiments. The reduction of scour due to the placement of circular collars, of different sizes and at different elevations, was also investigated. Analysis of the data from the experiments as well as data from earlier studies led to an equation for the maximum scour depth around circular bridge piers fitted with collars. The equation applies to local scour of uniform-sized sediment in clear-water flow.