Clear-water scour at bridge piers in fine and medium gravel beds

An experimental investigation on scour at circular and square piers in uniform and non-uniform gravels (fine and medium sizes) under clear-water scour at limiting stability of gravels is presented. From the experimental results, it is observed that the equilibrium scour depth increases with decrease in gravel size. The variation of equilibrium scour depth with gravel sizes departures considerably from that with sand sizes. Consequently, the resulting sediment size factors for gravels, obtained from envelope curve fitting, are significantly different from the existing sediment size factor for sands. The influence of gravel gradation on scour depth is also prominent in non-uniform gravels. The time scales to represent the time variation of scour depth in uniform and non-uniform gravels are determined. For uniform gravels, the non-dimensional time scale increases with increase in pier Froude number and gravel size, whereas for non-uniform gravels, it decreases with increase in geometric standard deviation of particle size distribution of gravels.Key words: bridge pier, gravel beds, scour, erosion, sediment transport, open channel flow, hydraulic engineering.