Bridging scour knowledge through research

Abstract

Hydrology Scour is a worldwide pheno­ menon and of great concern especially to civil engineers. Any structure placed in a river, whether of natural or human ori­ gin, will tend to promote scour and deposition due to a sudden change in the flow direction or high velocity flow. Such obstacles can include a boulder, an island, a sharp bend, or a pipe or road bridge pier. Local scour causes holes to be dug around structures – such as bridge piers and abutments – which are built on or below the riverbed. These holes can be exceptionally deep, e.g. they can easily run to 20 m to 30 m. Scour can also result in the sand around the pier being removed to such a depth that the pier ends up being sup­ ported on nothing. Because of this the pier will fail and the structure will collapse. Unfortunately, designing for scour is not a mature science. Scour is diffi­ cult to detect and the maximum scour depths attained under peak flood conditions cannot be measured with ease.

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