IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 11 | May 2016

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Scouring of Pier under Clear-water Condition

Aakash Jaiswal
Department of Civil Engineering
Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur.

Abstract
Scour is said to be a natural phenomenon caused by the erosive action of flowing water on alluvial bed which removes the sediment
or soil around or near structures which located in direction of flowing water. It means that decreasing of the bed level by the water
flow of water causes erosions such that there is a tendency to expose the base that is foundations of a structure. It is the consequence
of the erosive action of flowing water, which excavate and carry away material from the bed or formation level and from around
the piers of structures. Scour can be said to be the main cause for failures of marine structures throughout the world. In experimental
approach vertical piles is used for general purpose in the flumes for the investigation for the effects of scour. In previous few
studies, many techniques to reduce the scour depth have been employed such as by making use of splitter plates and collars on the
pile and also helical wires or cables spirally wrapped around the pile which resemble like threaded pile have also used to reduce
the potential of scour by flowing water. By using the different method or techniques, the scour depth can be reduced by changing
the flow field around the piles. Accurate estimation and prediction of scour depth is complex as there are various uncertainties
attached with it. Many methods of protection for the erosive action of water on soils near foundations of structures have also been
adopted and such various methods at different occasion prove costly on their application. It is therefore needed that more and more
studies are required still to estimate the scour depth accurately and effectively and also to find a cost effective method to mitigate
the scour.In this study the variation of scour depth with different parameter are discussed. The problem formulation of scour depth
under clear water scour condition had been done using regression analysis on ms excel and curves are plotted using the reference
data. The data collected in the present investigation, the laboratory and field data collected by other investigator have also been
used. The scour depths computed using regression analysis and graph are plotted to their respective parameters using regression
analysis and comparison has been done between observed and computed values.
Keywords: Sour, Scour mechanism, Scour Depth, Regression analysis
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.

INTRODUCTION

The most common cause of bridge failures is from floods scouring bed material from around bridge foundations. Scour is the
engineering term for the erosion caused by water of the soil surrounding a bridge foundation (piers and abutments). Scour is the
removal of sediment around or near structures located in flowing water. It means the lowering of the riverbed level by water
erosions such that there is a tendency to expose the foundations of a bridge. Scour occurs during the passage of high discharge,
when the velocity of the stream exceeds the limiting velocity that can be withstood by the particles of the bed materials. It is an
important hydraulic phenomenon from the point of view of construction of bridges. Scour depth is one of the most important
factors for deciding the foundation levels of the bridge. Scour is the result of the erosive action of flowing water, excavating and
carrying away material from the bed and banks of streams and from around the piers and abutments of bridges. Different materials
scour at different rates. Loose granular soils are rapidly eroded by flowing water, while cohesive or cemented soils are more scour
resistant. However, ultimate scour in cohesive or cemented soils can be as deep as scour in sand bed streams. Scour will reach its
maximum depth in sand and gravel bed materials in hours; cohesive bed materials in days; glacial tills, sandstones and shale in
months, lime stones in years. Many river bridges fail or are extremely damaged due to excessive local scouring during high floods.
Excessive local scour occurs around bridge piers and abutments as a result of removal of bed material due to severe flow patterns
surrounding the foundations (Yanmaz and Selamoglu, 2010). Since excessive scouring leads to considerable riverbed degradation,
bridges should be designed to resist such unfavorable effects. In addition to proper design, bridges should be monitored periodically
and existing scour criticality of them should be evaluated. Scour criticality of a bridge is assessed according to the level of scour
with respect to the footing elevation of that bridge.
Temporal Development of Scour:
The time development of scour has attracted the attention of many researchers (e.g. Melville and Chiew 1999), Dey (1999) was
also given the view that the time is an important factor in scour studies .The temporal development of scour is dependent on the
condition of flow, geometry and sediment parameters. Melville and Chiew (1999) studied the temporal development of scour at
bridge piers and developed equations for estimating the local scour depth under clear water flow conditions. Their research was
motivated by the fact that a number of investigations in the literature were reporting equilibrium scour depth and drawing
conclusion from these values on the test that clearly did not last long enough to reach an equilibrium state. In some cases, the tests
were as short as four hours. In an attempt to standardize the criteria for reaching an equilibrium state, Chiew and Melville (1999)
collected data from about 35 experiment that covered a wide range of pier diameter, flow depths, and approach flow velocities.

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Two different sediment diameters in the coarse range were employed .The test were allowed to run until equilibrium was reached.
The author defined the time to equilibrium as the time when the rate scour was reduced to five percent of the pier diameter in a 24
hours period. This criterion yielded values of time to equilibrium as high as three days for some cases. The data indicated that, for
a given approach flow depth and velocity ratio, the time to equilibrium increases with increasing pier diameter. This result is
expected since the size of the scour hole is related to the pier width and a larger hole requires a longer scour time to stabilize. The
data also show that, all other things being equal, the time to reach equilibrium scour condition increases with an increase in the
velocity ratio.

Fig. 1: Local scour depth variation with time and flow velocity

Fig. 2: Conditions in localized scouring

Fig. 3: Local scour at piers and abutments

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Local Scour:
As described before local scour occurs in the immediate vicinity of the bridge piers. When flood occurs and the floodwater reaches
into the built-up areas, the same process happens i.e. scouring of foundations of houses and buildings takes place progressively,
exposing the foundations to flood loads leading them to partial/complete collapse.
Local scour occurs around a foundation when the local flow field being developed by the flow is strong enough to remove the soil
particles from the vicinity. Local scour is a time dependent process. The development of local scour is dependent on various factors
which we will come across as we go further. The basic mechanism inducing local scour is the formation of vortices at the
foundation. The localized scouring has been a concern to many investigators and researchers and numerous works exists on the
topic. The significance of local scour can be understood by the fact that counter-measure to local scour alone can minimize the
damages being caused by the flood in the built-up areas.
Mechanism of Scour:
Vortex formation and down-flow are the major cause of local scour and the fundamental theories of local scour are based upon
them only. The vortices are formed at the base of the pier and down-flow occurs at the upstream face of the pier. The flow loses
the acceleration as it move towards the pier becoming stagnant at the face of the pier. The pressure increases at the pier face as the
approach flow velocity reduces itself to zero at the upstream side. The associated pressures are highest near the surface, where the
deceleration is greatest, and decrease downwards. With the decrease in the velocity from surface to bed, the pressure accordingly
decreases resulting in the formation of downward pressure gradient. The pressure gradient forces the flow down the face of the
pier, resembling of a vertical jet. The flow resulting due to the pressure gradient impinges the streambed and creates a cavity/hole
in the proximity of pier base. This flow impinging on the bed is the main scouring agent.
Figure 4 shows the scour pattern at a circular pier under the action of currents. In the figure, the vortex motion induced by the
existence of the pier carries along the bed sediments within the vicinity of the base of pier. The flow rolling up continues to create
a hole and, due to interaction with the oncoming flow, it develops into a vortex system, a complex vortex system. The vortex then
extends itself downstream along the sides of the pier base. This vortex is referred as horseshoe vortex because of its great similarity
to a horseshoe. The horseshoe vortex is effective in transporting the dispersed particles away from the pier. In context with the
development of the vortex, the scour depth increases and the strength of the horseshoe vortex tends to diminish, which leads to a
reduction in the rate of sediment transport from the base of the pier. Wake vortices, are the vertical vortices which are also formed
in the vicinity of the pier base besides the horseshoe vortex, reason for their development is the separation of flow at the sides of
the pier. Although, both the horseshoe and wake vortices erode the material from the base region of the pier, however it should be
acknowledged that the intensity of the wake vortices reduces with the downstream distance of the pier, as a result it is seen that for
a long pier immediately downstream there is a deposition of material.

Fig. 4: Flow and scour pattern at a circular pier

Problem Formulation on Clear Water Scour:

Dimensional analysis is a powerful tool in formulating problems. Physical mechanism of local scour can be understood better if
appropriate dimensionless parameter describing the phenomenon or defined scour at Pier is influenced by various parameters
(Breusers et al. 1997), which are grouped as follows:
- Parameters related to the pier: size, spacing, number, and orientation with respect to the approaching flow direction.

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Parameters related to the bed sediments: median size, particle size, distribution, mass density, angle of repose, and
cohesiveness
- Parameters related to the approaching flow condition: approaching flow velocity, approaching flow depth, shear velocity
and roughness
- Parameters related to the fluid: mass density, viscosity, gravitational acceleration and temperature.
- Parameters related to the time: time of scour for an evolving scour hole.
- Parameters related to the unsteadiness: passage of flood waves in rivers and in marine environment.
A dimensional analysis is made below for the parameters that affect the local scour mechanism, which is suggest by Yanmaz
(2002).
Ds =f1 (, v, U, H, s, d50, g, D, t, g )
(4.1)
Ds =f2 (, v, H, cr, U ,H, ,d50, g, D, t, g )
(4.2)
Ds/D = f3(U2* c / gd50, d50/H, D/ d50, Ud50/ v, H/D, U2/ gD, Ut/D, g)
(4.3)
Ds/ D = f4 (H/ D, Ut/ D, IFp, g)
(4.4)
Using regression analysis following relationship has been developed in Microsoft excel:
Ds/ D = 1.423 + 0.035 H/ D + 0.995 IFp + (1.97E 07)Ut / D 0.5535 g
(4.5)
II. CONCLUSION
Analysis of Scour Depth in Relation to Non-Dimensional Parameters:

Fig. 5.1: variation of non-dimensional scour depth Vs Froude number

Fig. 5.2: Variation of non-dimensional scour depth Vs H/D

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Scouring of Pier under Clear-water Condition

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Fig. 5.4: Variation of non-dimensional scour depth Vs Ut/D

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Author would like to thank eveyone from all across India for their co-operation and kind help and to be part of this project. This
work has been carried out in civil engineering department of Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur.
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