Live-bed pier scour in supercritical open-channel flows

Abstract

Under a flow in supercritical regime, depending on the pier width to water depth ratio, the flow pattern around a bridge pier can take the form of a wall-jet-like bow wave or a detached hydraulic jump. The present work aims at analysing the maximum scour depth at piers in both flow patterns. A dedicated experimental set-up was used to produce the live-bed scour experiments, varying the inflow velocity and pier diameter. During the experiments, scour developed very rapidly, achieving equilibrium conditions after few minutes. No major differences between the maximum scour depth in the wall-jet-like bow wave and detached hydraulic jump cases were observed. Measured scour depths were of comparable magnitude and followed similar tendencies with controlling parameters as in subcritical flows. Scour formulas for piers in subcritical flow thus achieve a good accuracy in prediction of maximum scour depth at piers in supercritical flows.