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Splitter plate as a flow-altering pier scour countermeasure

  • Research Article - Hydrology
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Abstract

Results of an experimental study on the countermeasure of scour depth at circular piers are presented. Experiments were conducted for pier scour with and without a splitter plate under a steady, uniform clear-water flow condition. The results of pier scour without splitter plate were used as a reference. Different combinations of lengths and thicknesses of splitter plates were tested attaching each of them to a pier at the upstream vertical plane of symmetry. Two different median sediment sizes (d 50 = 0.96 and 1.8 mm) were considered as bed sediment. The experimental results show that the scour depth consistently decreases with an increase in splitter plate length, while the scour depth remains independent of splitter plate thickness. In addition, temporal evolution of scour depth at piers with and without a splitter plate is observed. The best combination is found to be with a splitter plate thickness of b/5 and a length of 2b. Here, b denotes the pier diameter. An empirical formula for the estimation of equilibrium scour depth at piers with splitter plates is obtained from a multiple linear regression analysis of the experimental data. The flow fields for various combinations of circular piers with and without splitter plate including plain bed and equilibrium scour conditions were measured by using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter. The turbulent flow fields for various configurations are investigated by plotting the velocity vectors and the turbulent kinetic energy contours on vertical and horizontal planes. The splitter plate attached to the pier deflects the approach flow and thus weakens the strength of the downflow and the horseshoe vortex, being instrumental in reducing the equilibrium scour depth at piers. The proposed method of pier scour countermeasure is easy to install and cost effective as well.

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Abbreviations

B :

Channel width

B :

Pier diameter

C sp :

Coefficient of splitter plate

d s :

Maximum scour depth

d s,o :

Observed scour depth

d s,c :

Computed scour depth

d s0 :

Scour depth at unprotected pier

d sp :

Scour depth at protected pier

d su :

Maximum scour depth at unprotected pier

d 16 :

16% finer sediment size

d 50 :

Median sediment size

d 84 :

84% finer sediment size

F :

Flow Froude number

g :

Gravitational acceleration

h :

Approaching flow depth

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy

K e :

Equivalent roughness height

l p :

Splitter plate length

R e :

Equivalent Reynolds number

r ds :

Percentage reduction of scour depth

s :

Relative sediment density

t :

Time

t p :

Thickness of splitter plate

U :

Approaching flow velocity

U c :

Critical flow velocity

U * c :

Critical shear flow velocity

u :

Instantaneous streamwise velocity component

u′:

Fluctuations of u

v :

Instantaneous spanwise velocity component

v′:

Fluctuations of v

w :

Instantaneous vertical velocity component

w′:

Fluctuations of w

x :

Streamwise distance from the flume inlet

\(\hat{x}\) :

Non-dimensional streamwise distance (= x/b)

z :

Vertical distance from the bed

\(\hat{z}\) :

Non-dimensional vertical distance (= z/b)

Δ:

Relative submerged density (= s − 1)

σ g :

Geometric standard deviation of sediment size

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Shivakumar Khaple, Prashanth Reddy Hanmaiahgari & Subhasish Dey

  2. Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Università della Calabria, Rende, CS, Italy

    Roberto Gaudio

  3. Physics and Applied Mathematics Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

    Subhasish Dey

  4. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Subhasish Dey

Authors
  1. Shivakumar Khaple
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  2. Prashanth Reddy Hanmaiahgari
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  3. Roberto Gaudio
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  4. Subhasish Dey
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Correspondence to Subhasish Dey.

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Khaple, S., Hanmaiahgari, P.R., Gaudio, R. et al. Splitter plate as a flow-altering pier scour countermeasure. Acta Geophys. 65, 957–975 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-017-0084-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11600-017-0084-z

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