Date of Award

2013

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Keywords

Applied sciences, Earth sciences, Blockage, Bridge, Clear water, Open channel, Pier, Scour

Supervisor

Balachandar, Ramaswami

Supervisor

Bolisetti, Tirupati

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Our understanding of the scouring process and the current empirical design equations is based on laboratory data that may have exceeded acceptable blockage. Previous literature indicates that scour may only be significantly affected when blockage ratio is greater than 10%. Also, some recent literature indicates that blockage may have a significant effect on the scour profile for blockage ratios less than 10%. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of blockage (wall interference) on local pier scour for circular piers in clear water conditions by varying channel width and pier diameter to obtain blockage ratios between 2.5% and 11.4%. Maintaining identical flow conditions for several blockage ratios was an important aspect of this study in order to maintain consistency throughout the experiments. An analysis of blockage for different pier sizes and relative coarseness, D/d 50 , was used to provide a clearer understanding of when blockage effects occur in experimental study.

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