Low-Cost Scour Preventing Fairings for Bridges
Cost-effective optimized robust scour preventing three- dimensional convex-concave hydrodynamic fairings with attached vortex generators have been designed, developed, extensively tested, and are now available for practical use. These were tested for bridge piers and abutments during a National Co- operative Highway Research Program (NCHRP-IDEA) project. Their particular shape prevents creation of scouring vortices that cause the local scour problem for any river level, speed, and angles of attack up to 20 degrees, unlike a fairing shape used by FHWA that does not prevent scour. This device exceeds requirements for HEC-23. Cost-effective versions are of stainless-steel or conventionally cast concrete that are attached to an existing or cast as part of the base of a new hydraulic structure above the footing, respectively. The vortex generators energize the decelerating near-wall flow with higher- momentum flow, resulting in a more steady, compact downstream separation and wake and substantially mitigated scour inducing vortical flow. Experimental test results confirm that scAUR™ scouring-vortex-preventing fairings prevent foundation local scour for smaller sediments, wing-wall and spill-through abutments, and full-scale piers, as well as preventing the effects of open-bed scour on foundations. Other advantages of this robust device over other current approaches are: (1) much lower costs for scour prevention and bridge maintenance; (2) much lower probability of bridge failure;(3) lower river levels due to lower drag and lower flow blockage around the pier or abutment; (4) much lower possibility for debris and ice buildup; and (5) greater protection of piers and abutments against impact loads.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB60 Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality.
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Simpson, Roger L
- Byun, Gwibo
- Mueller, Edmund C
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
- Date: 2015
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Photos; References;
- Pagination: 31p
- Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bridge abutments; Bridge foundations; Bridge piers; Fairings; Hydrodynamics; Scour; Vortices
- Identifier Terms: National Cooperative Highway Research Program
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Maintenance and Preservation; I60: Maintenance;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01553488
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5259
- Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
- Created Date: Feb 17 2015 10:30AM