Experimental study on local scour protection and contact pressure of the facing water surface at the pier based on the guide pillar

Abstract

The safety of pier foundations is an important issue in bridge construction, where local bridge scour is a major cause of bridge damage worldwide, exacerbated by ice sheets. This paper offers a live bed scour experimental investigation that assesses the impacts of the new anti-scour device guide pillar of different sizes on geometric properties of scour, downflow velocity distribution, and turbulence intensity around the pier under different flow velocities and roughnesses, and to select the optimum installation position and size of the guide pillar. The results demonstrate that the guide pillar has a considerable effect on the scour hole and downflow around the pier, and the maximum reduction rate of scour depth is 59.3% in the optimal installation position (2d). By arranging distributed thin-film pressure sensors on the pier and measuring the pressure distribution on the facing water surface of the pier and the position of the center of gravity, this paper analyzes the distribution characteristics of the water flow force on the pier and the impact resistance of the guide pillar to the pier scour. The study found that the guide pillar reduces the water flow force by 61.3% without considering the effect of hydrostatic pressure.