Experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of different shapes of collars on the reduction of scour around a single bridge pier

PLoS One. 2014 Jun 11;9(2):e98592. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098592. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The scour phenomenon around bridge piers causes great quantities of damages annually all over the world. Collars are considered as one of the substantial methods for reducing the depth and volume of scour around bridge piers. In this study, the experimental and numerical methods are used to investigate two different shapes of collars, i.e, rectangular and circular, in terms of reducing scour around a single bridge pier. The experiments were conducted in hydraulic laboratory at university of Malaya. The scour around the bridge pier and collars was simulated numerically using a three-dimensional, CFD model namely SSIIM 2.0, to verify the application of the model. The results indicated that although, both types of collars provides a considerable decrease in the depth of the scour, the rectangular collar, decreases scour depth around the pier by 79 percent, and has better performance compared to the circular collar. Furthermore, it was observed that using collars under the stream's bed, resulted in the most reduction in the scour depth around the pier. The results also show the SSIIM 2.0 model could simulate the scour phenomenon around a single bridge pier and collars with sufficient accuracy. Using the experimental and numerical results, two new equations were developed to predict the scour depth around a bridge pier exposed to circular and rectangular collars.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation
  • Engineering / methods*
  • Equipment Design
  • Hydrodynamics*
  • Transportation*

Grants and funding

High Impact Research Grant, project number: UM.C/625/1/HIR/61, account number: H-16001-00-D000061: A Fundamental Research on Sustainable Scouring Countermeasure and Innovative Scouring Monitoring Systems with Smart Sensor Technologies. The funder (high impact research) has provided all expenses in project, also it will support all fees of publication. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.