The Fallacy of Local Abutment Scour Equations

by J. R. Richardson, Resource Consultants and Engineers, Inc, Ft. Collins, United States,
E. V. Richardson, Resource Consultants and Engineers, Inc, Ft. Collins, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Hydraulic Engineering

Abstract:

Existing laboratory model studies for quantifying local abutment scour deviate significantly from conditions typically found in the field. This has resulted in predictive local abutment scour equations which tend to estimate excessive abutment scour when these equations are applied to actual bridge crossings. In order to provide the highway community with applicable predictive abutment scour equation, it is necessary to reconsider the physical factors which influence abutment scour at actual bridge sites. Any alternative abutment scour equations must focus on conditions which occur in the field, and not on the special conditions which are only encountered in the laboratory.

Subject Headings: Bridge abutments | Scour | Highway bridges | Field tests | Laboratory tests | Failure analysis | Bridge failures

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