Simulation of flow and evaluation of bridge scour at Horse Island Chute Bridge near Chester, Illinois

Abstract

The evaluation of scour at bridges throughout the State of Missouri has been ongoing since 1991, and most of these evaluations have used onedimensional hydraulic analysis and application of conventional scour depth equations. Occasionally, the conditions of a site dictate that a more thorough hydraulic assessment is required. To provide the hydraulic parameters required to determine the potential scour depths at the bridge over Horse Island Chute near Chester, Illinois, a two-dimensional finite-element surface-water model was used to simulate flood flows in the vicinity of the Missouri State Highway 51 crossing of the Mississippi River and Horse Island Chute. The model was calibrated using flood-flow information collected during the 1993 flood. A flood profile along the Illinois side of the Mississippi River on August 5, 1993, with a corresponding measured discharge of 944,000 cubic feet per second was used to calibrate the model. Two additional flood-flow simulations were run: the flood peak that occurred on August 6, 1993, with a maximum discharge of 1,000,000 cubic feet per second, and the discharge that caused impending overtopping of the road embankment in the vicinity of the Horse Island Chute bridge, with a discharge of 894,000 cubic feet per second (impendent discharge). Hydraulic flow parameters obtained from the simulations were applied to scour depth equations to determine general contraction and local pier and abutment scour depths at the Horse Island Chute bridge. The measured discharge of 944,000 cubic feet per second resulted in 13.3 feet of total combined contraction and local pier scour at Horse Island Chute bridge. The maximum discharge of 1,000,000 cubic feet per second resulted in 15.8 feet of total scour and the impendent discharge of 894,000 cubic feet per second resulted in 11.6 feet of total scour.