Effect of Meander on Bridge Pier Scour

Lots of work regarding the scour around bridge piers in straight channelhave been done in the past by many researchers. Many factors which affectscour around piers such as shape of piers, size, positioning and orientationetc. have been studied in detail by them. However, similar studies inmeandering channels are scanty. Very few researchers have studied theeffect of angular displacement which has considerable effects of scouraround bridge piers.In this paper an attempt has been made to carry out a detailed study ofangular displacement on scour. A constant diameter bridge pier of circularshape has been tested in a meandering channel bend with bend angle as 800 .The test bed was prepared by using uniform sand having d50 as 0.27 mmand run was taken for a discharge of 2.5 l/s.

Application of a Single Porous Basket as a Pier Scour Countermeasure

This paper presents a study on bridge pier protection with a single porous basket (SPB) in clear-water experiments. The SPB is a type of combined flow-altering countermeasure. The SPB was installed at a distance ahead of the protected pier. After a series of tests, the results showed that appropriate installation of the SPB was able to effectively adjust the flow pattern to reduce the down-flow motion and horseshoe vortex ahead of the pier. Dominant factors for the pier protection—considered for all tests—included the distance between the basket and pier, submerged depth of the basket, basket length, pier diameter, basket diameter, hole size, porosity, and the flow approaching angle. After evaluating these parameters through laboratory tests, the results of protection were optimized. In optimal conditions, the SPB was able to provide maximum pier protection and decrease the maximum scour depth by as much as 75.53%.

A multi-attribute approach to select the best method for repairing river bridge columns

PurposePier scour is one of the main causes of damage to the columns of the river bridges. It is essential to select the best method among various repair methods based on different evaluation indices. However, there is no procedure for ranking these repair methods based on their attributes. The present study seeks to set an approach for this ranking.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, a multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) model is presented for ranking the repair techniques, in which alternatives are examined using the most important evaluation criteria. In addition, a combination of entropy and eigenvector methods has been proposed for weighting these attributes. A case study is then used to demonstrate the applicability and the validity of the method.FindingsThe execution of the model using two multi-criteria methods yielded similar results, which confirms its accuracy and precision. Moreover, the research findings showed the consistency of the objective and subjective weighting methods and the conformity of the weights obtained for the attributes from the combination of these methods to the nature of the problem.Originality/valueThe selection of the proper method for repairing the bridge columns plays an essential role in success of the bridge restoration. The proposed model introduces an approach for ranking repair methods and selecting the best one that has not been presented so far. Also, the weighing method for attributes is an innovative method for ranking restoration methods that has been proven in a case study.