Experimental investigation of local scouring around the bridge piers located at a 90° convergent river bend

Abstract

Placing the bridge piers in the river with a convergent bend can make the flow and erosion pattern complicated around the bridge piers. In this research, the maximum depth and volume of scour hole around piers were investigated in convergent bends of a river. The experimental model with a 90° convergent bend was made with a central curvature radius of 170 cm. The piers with the cylindrical and cubic shapes with different dimensions were prepared and installed at different positions of 90° convergent bend to investigate the scouring condition under three flow discharges in Clear-water mode. On the other hand, natural sand with uniform grain size of d50 = 1 mm was used as the bed materials. The results revealed that depth and volume of the scour hole around piers increase with increasing angle, so that the maximum depth and volume of the scour hole occurred at the angle 75°. Furthermore, the depth and volume of the scour hole around cylindrical piers were lower than cubic piers in all cases. Also, the scour hole shape was asymmetric relative to central axis of the channel and was mainly the extension of the hole towards the inner bend.