Local Scour of Bridge Pier Sited on a Multi-Layered Sedimentary Bed in Rivers

Abstract

The riverbeds or sea beds are usually composed of multi-layers of sediments. The scour around bridge piers sited on such beds is vital to the bridge safety, but is still very difficult to be predicated as its complicated interaction between the flow and bed layers. A simple model is proposed in this study for calculating the local scour maximum depth around bridge piers sited on multi-layer of sedimentary bed, which is based on HEC-18 formula revised by Richardson and Davis (2001) and the formula of the repose angle of sediment particles proposed by Cheng (1993). This model considers the particle sorting when the scour proceeds. An application of the model into the local scour depth of Guopan bridge pier sited on the Weihe River bed in Baoji city of China preliminarily demonstrates its reliability to calculate the local scour maximum depth around bridge piers sited on multi-layer of sedimentary bed.