Bridge scour

Bridge scour is the removal of sediment such as sand and rocks from around bridge
abutments or piers. Scour, caused by swiftly moving water, can scoop out scour holes,
compromising the integrity of a structure.[1]
Bridge scour is one of the three main causes of bridge failure (the others being collision and
overloading). It has been estimated that 60% of all bridge failures result from scour and other
hydraulic-related causes.
AREAS AFFECTED: Water normally flows faster around piers and abutments making them
susceptible to local scour. At bridge openings, contraction scour can occur when water
accelerates as it flows through an opening that is narrower than the channel upstream from
the bridge. Degradation scour occurs both upstream and downstream from a bridge over large
areas. Over long periods of time, this can result in lowering of the stream bed.
The complexity of bridge abutment scour necessitates a thorough evaluation of the
physical processes involved and their parameterization in scour depth estimation formulas. As
river flow approaches a bridge, the streamlines converge due to the physical contraction in
width and then diverge once through it. In this process, the flow passes around bluff bodies,
generating, transporting, and eventually dissipating large-scale turbulence structures (large
eddies shed in a recognizable pattern due to flow separation albeit intermittently with time).
The flow is bounded by erodible boundaries of complex and changing form that have widely
varying compositions and characteristics. Even the classification of abutment scour as an
independent bridge scour component is problematic, because contraction scour and abutment
scour are linked processes usually occurring together during flood events. Given the
complexity of the various scour processes, and the difficulty of including all of those
processes in a single empirical formula, it is not surprising that current abutment scour
formulas commonly provide scour depth estimates that vary over a wide range of magnitudes.
Furthermore, comparisons of abutment scour depth estimations from existing formulas with
field data and with engineering experience produce mixed results, partly because of the
misperception that abutment scour formulas based on simplified laboratory experiments
apply to all types of abutment scour, even to the most complicated field situations, and partly
due to the difficulty of estimating the flow and sediment parameters required in existing scour
formulas..