EFFECT OF SUBMERGENCE RATIO OF PILE CAP ON SCOUR HOLE AT COMPLEX BRIDGE PIERS

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Civil Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Menoufia University, Egypt.

Abstract

Local scour around complex bridge piers under different clear-water conditions was studied experimentally for a variety of submergence ratios, skew angles and geometric shapes. A total of one hundred and fifty six runs were carried out. Three sets of experiments were performed over the entire range of possible pile cap shapes for complex piers with five different submergence ratios and three values of skew angles ( angle of attack) of complex pier under different four values of Froude number. The collected data are used to analyze the scour hole geometry around such complex piers. Obtained results were analyzed and graphically represented. Results indicated that, increasing submergence ratios led to increase relative scour depth and length. Also increasing skew angle led to increase scour hole geometry. Although rectangular pile cap with round nose of complex pier gave the smallest scour hole dimensions, rectangular pile cap with sharp nose of complex pier gave closed results to it.

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