Live-Bed Local Pier Scour Experiments

TLDR

The study used a 1.5 m wide, 1.2 m deep, 45 m long tilting flume at the University of Auckland to conduct local clear‑water and live‑bed scour tests across a range of water depths, flow velocities, two sediment sizes (0.27 mm and 0.84 mm), and a 0.15 m diameter circular pile. The experiments extended local scour data to velocity ratios up to 6, approaching the peak live‑bed scour for the tested conditions, and compared measured scour depths with predictions from four local scour equations.

Abstract

Local clear-water and live-bed scour tests were performed for a range of water depths and flow velocities with two different uniform cohesionless sediment diameters (0.27 and 0.84mm) and a circular pile with a diameter of 0.15m. The tests were performed in a tilting flume (1.5m wide, 1.2m deep, and 45m long) located in the Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand. These tests extend local scour data obtained in controlled experiments to velocity ratio (V∕Vc) values as high as 6. This is near the velocity where the peak live-bed scour occurs for the sediment and flow conditions. Scour depth predictions are made with four different local scour equations for the conditions of the tests and the results compared with the measured values.