Clear-Water Experimental Scour Depths at Abutments

Abstract—Laboratory experiments on local scour process at wing wall bridge abutments were conducted for different hydraulic conditions and compared with measurements on local scour depths around vertical wall abutments, under the same flow and sediment transport conditions. The study reports an extensive experimental investigation performed in a laboratory flume in the Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, whose findings are used to describe the effects of different hydraulic parameters on local scour depth variation in the vicinity of the constructions. Three different sizes of wing wall abutment’s lengths, transverse to the flow direction, were used in order to investigate the impact of this parameter to local scour variation. The expected bed erosion and the maximum scour depth at the upstream edge of the wing wall abutments are satisfactorily simulated by the experimental procedure. All the experimental results are graphically presented and comparisons between clear-water scour depths around the vertical wall and the wing wall abutments show lower values of scour depths in the vicinity of the wing wall abutments, under the same hydraulic and sediment transport conditions and for the same abutment widths. The experimental data of clear-water scour conditions were used to determine an equation of maximum equilibrium scour depth through regression analysis. The estimated scour depths were in agreement with the experimental values for each abutment geometry.