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Flow and Scour Near an Abutment

by Hsieh Wen Shen, Univ of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, United States,
Christian T. Chan, Univ of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, United States,
Jihn-Sung Lai, Univ of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, United States,
Dihua Zhao, Univ of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Hydraulic Engineering

Abstract:

Laboratory experiments were used in conjunction with a two-dimensional depth-averaged numerical flow model, RBFVM-2D, to investigate the relationship between flow velocity distribution and scour depth around an abutment. Velocities obtained by the RBFVM-2D model varied up to 15% relative to the data recorded during this study. Location of the maximum velocity as predicted by the numerical model, however, differed from the actual measured data in that the experimental maximum was found in close proximity to the nose of the abutment, whereas RBFVM-2D predicts that the maximum velocity will occur further downstream near the centerline of the contracted region. Results were compared with values produced by the equations of past investigators for the given flow conditions. The dimensionless parameters of interest in this study are in good agreement with the values predicted by these other equations. Furthermore, dimensionless analysis reveals tendencies yielded by the experimental data agree with the results Tey (1984) had obtained from a similar experiment. As such, an objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between scour depth and the local maximum velocity for the engineering purposes of design and analysis.

Subject Headings: Numerical models | Two-dimensional models | Wave velocity | Velocity distribution | Scour | Bridge abutments | Two-dimensional flow

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