ABSTRACT

Scour holes created by three-dimensional flow of water around bridge piers

are a major cause of failure of bridge pier foundations. An evaluation of the effects of
scouring around bridge piers forms necessary step in bridge design. The problem of
scouring at cylindrical pier model on non-cohesive sand and on a bed containig
different percentage of clay in non-cohesive sand was investigated experimentally.
All the experiments were performed in a 12 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.71 m deep
horizontal flume. Non-cohesive sand of diameter 0.15 mm, different percentage of
clay such as 5, 10 and 20 % and different pier models were used in the experimental
runs.
The time-averaged velocity components, turbulent intensity components,
vertical depth components and Reynold stresses within the scoured bed were taken by
the Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) at the upstream side of two different
cylindrical pier models. Four pier size of diameter 7.5 cm, 3.8 cm, 2 cm and 1 cm
were considered for depth measurement in initial set of experimental runs for non-
cohesive sand. In such bed condition velocity measurements were performed only for
7.5 cm and 3.8 cm pier model. For further sets of experimental runs, thoroughly
mixed clay content of 5 %, 10 % and 20 % in non cohesive sand were used for depth
and velocity measurements in the vicinity of 7.5 cm and 3.8 cm pier model.
An experimental result have shown that the time required to attain maximum
constant scour depth in non-cohesive sand is less and therefore, low maximum
constant scour depth was obtained due to increment of clay content in non-cohesive
sand. The volume of scour hole at the upstream of the pier model was decreased with
increased in clay content and the flow velocity in the scour hole of non-cohesive sand
with higher clay content was also got reduced. Due to flow separation, pronounced
bulges were observed in the vertical distribution of normalized streamwise turbulent
intensity component and Reynolds stresses, while spike was observed near the bed for
turbulent intensity components because of the shuddering effect of the primary vortex.

Keywords: Pier models; three-dimensional flow; scour.

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