Abstract
Local scour around caissons under currents has become one of the main factors affecting the safety of foundation construction and operation in coastal and offshore bridge engineering. Local scour occurs not only in the operation stage, when the caisson has settled into the sediment, but also in the construction stage, when the caisson is suspended in water. In this study, the local scour induced by unidirectional and tidal currents around settled caissons with different cross-sections (circular, square, and diamond) was experimentally investigated. Circular and square caissons were selected to investigate the difference in local scour of suspended caissons under unidirectional and tidal currents. The main findings from the experimental results were: (1) the temporal development of scour under tidal current was slower than that of unidirectional current; (2) the effect of current type can significantly influence the size and location of maximum scour depth around circular and square caissons; (3) the appropriate choice of cross-section could reduce the maximum scour depth around the settled caisson; (4) the maximum scour depth of tidal current was smaller than that of unidirectional current when the caisson was settled into the sediment, while the opposite effect occurred when the caisson was suspended in water.
Highlights
New developments in sea-crossing bridges motivate the construction of different kinds of bridge foundations in the offshore environment [1]
Local scour of bridge piers under unidirectional currents have been investigated in many aspects
In order ordertotoinvestigate investigatethe the difference in scour under unidirectional current and current tidal current the caisson was suspended in water, caissons with two different cross-sections when the caisson was suspended in water, caissons with two different cross-sections
Summary
New developments in sea-crossing bridges motivate the construction of different kinds of bridge foundations in the offshore environment [1]. Compared with the land environment [2], coastal and offshore bridge foundations can obstruct current flow in the offshore environment [3], which can induce a downward flow and create complex vortexes [4] and result in local scour of sediments around the foundations [5]. Local scour reduces the embedded depth, and the stability and vibration frequency of bridge foundations, and affects the safety of structures [6,7,8]. Local scour of bridge piers under unidirectional currents have been investigated in many aspects. Ataie-Ashtiani and Beheshti [12] and Oliveto and Hager [13] investigated the evolution of local scour of bridge piers
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