VERTICAL CONTRACTION SCOURING UNDER SUBMERGED BRIDGE FLOW

1. Abstract
The flow under the bridge becomes contracted, when depth of flow past a river bridge exceeds opening under the bridge and get pressurized. The water is directed downward and under the bridge deck, causing increase in velocity and shear stress on the bed thereby increasing bed scour. This is termed as Pressure Flow Scour. This paper deals with the study on the phenomenon of pressure flow scour resulting from a submerged bridge deck and the equations for the design scour depth. The experimental studies and detailed mechanism of pressure scouring were discussed based on various research papers published until now. It also emphasis for the need for more researches on submerged-flow bridge scouring.

2. Introduction
Bridges , one of the engineering marvels , which opened the way for man to his modern civilized world of trade and culture, was first introduced by the nature itself to us in the form of fallen logs across small water bodies, ditches etc. As in the case of any other structures, Bridges also face so many problems in which Bridge Scouring is considered to be one of the major. Bridge scouring is the removal of sediment such as sand and rocks from around bridge abutments or piers. It has been estimated that most of all bridge failures result from scour and other hydraulic-related causes. Scouring may be caused by several reasons like size of waterways under the bridge, the instability of channels, debris, upstream and downstream flow conditions etc. Scouring caused by the size of water way which is changed due to a structural obstruction is termed as the contraction scour. This can be either due to contraction in width of channel by the construction or by the vertical contraction due to the insufficient height of bridge structure.

Figure .1: Completely inundated bridges at Cedar River, IA. Vertical contraction which can also be termed as pressure flow, occurs due to insufficient height of bridge deck so that the superstructure become an obstruction to the flow, causing the flow to be get vertically contracted. A bridge deck is considered partially submerged when the lowest structural element of the bridge is in contact with the flowing water but the water is not sufficiently high to overtop the bridge deck. It is considered fully submerged when a portion of the flow overtops the bridge deck. In this study we are mainly focused on the contraction scour due to the fully submerged flow.

3. Literature Review
Investigations on submerged flow bridge scour have been reported by Arneson and Abt(1998), Umbrell et al.(1998), Lyn(2008) and Guo et al. (2009). The study of time-dependent scour depth has been reported extensively in literature, but all of them were under free surface flow condition about pier scour (Dargahi 1990, Yanmaz and Alitmbilek 1991, Melville 1992, Kothyari et al. 1992,Melville and Chiew 1999, Chang 2004, Oliveto and Hager 2005 , Lopez et al. 2006,Yanmaz 2006, Lai et al. 2009) and abutment scour (Oliveto and Hager 2002,Coleman et al. 2003, Dey and Barbhuiya 2005, Yanmaz and Kose 2009). Very few of them were about general scour under bridge-submerged flow condition. Arneson and Abt conducted a series of flume tests at Colorado State University on pressure flow and proposed the regression equation in figure 2.

Figure.2: Equation. Arneson and Abt equation for maximum equilibrium scour. Where: ys = Maximum equilibrium scour depth, ft. hu = Approach flow depth, ft. hb = Vertical bridge opening height before scour, ft. Vb = Average velocity of the flow through the bridge opening before scour occurs, ft/s. Vc = Critical velocity of the bed material in the bridge opening, ft/s.

Vc is defined by Arneson and Abt as shown in figure 3 as follows:

Figure.3: Equation. Critical velocity as per Arneson and Abt. Where: g = Gravitational acceleration, ft/s2. s = Specific gravity of sediment, dimensionless. D50 = Median diameter of the bed materials, ft. Umbrell et al. conducted a series of flume tests in the FHWA TFHRC J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Laboratory. Using the mass conservation law and assuming that the velocity under a bridge at scour equilibrium is equal to the critical velocity of the upstream flow, they presented the equation in figure 4.

Figure.4: Equation. Umbrell et al. equation for maximum equilibrium scour. Where: Vu = Average approach flow velocity, ft/s. hw = Depth of weir flow overtopping bridge, ft. Vu must be less than or equal to Vc to insure the clear water scour assumption. When flow does not overtop the bridge deck (i.e., partially submerged flow), then hw equals zero. Umbrell et al. modified the previous equation to improve the fit to their laboratory data, resulting in the equation in figure 5. As part of the refinement in this equation, Vc is estimated by the equation in figure 3, but the coefficient 1.52 is replaced by 1.58.

Figure.5: Equation. Modified Umbrell et al. equation for maximum equilibrium scour. Lyn reanalyzed the data collected by Arneson and Abt and Umbrell et al. Lyn identified concerns related to spurious correlation in the regression for the Arneson and Abt equation and the low quality of Umbrell et al.s dataset. He proposed the empirical power law formulation in figure 6.

Figure.6: Equation. Lyn equation for maximum equilibrium scour. But the final concerns of Lyn also suggest for an improved model for pressure scour. Also several studies conducted by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) under U.S. Department of Transportation analyzed the feasibility of the above works and proposed a better design guidance to predict bridge contraction scour when the bridge is partially or fully submerged and published on August 2012. As per their study, from the Scaled flume
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experiments, PIV tests, and CFD modeling, it is confirmed that the maximum scour depth can be described by the effective depth (contracted depth) in the bridge opening at equilibrium scour and finally proposed the best fit design equation for submerged flow condition as given in fig:7

Figure.7: Equation. Design equation for submerged scour.

Where, Ku= a constant equal to 11.17 ft2/s. This came from the Laursen relation for critical

velocity,
Vue = Effective approach velocity directed under the bridge.

4. Mechanism of Pressure Scour

When depth of flow past a river bridge exceeds opening under the bridge, the flow under the bridge becomes pressurized. The water is directed downward and under the bridge deck, causing increase in velocity and shear stress on the bed thereby increasing bed scour which is termed as Pressure Flow Scour. Velocity of approaching flow, depth of flow, degree of submergence and width of bridge are some of the parameters that are likely to affect the scour under a submerged bridge. The effect of fluctuations in the flow depth on the depth of scour increases with decrease in constriction. The scour under an isolated submerged bridge is initiated mainly because of increase in tractive shear stress on the sediment particles. Water flowing in the flume is directed downwards, when encounters an obstruction in the form of bridge deck. The velocity of flow increases because of the reduction in natural flow area. Consequently, shear stress on the bed increases which starts pressure flow scour. While the bed material gets transported out of the constriction, the flow area under the bridge increases. It results in the reduction of flow velocity, which eventually falls below incipient value and scour equilibrium is reached. For higher discharges and higher submergences, the flow under the bridge becomes circulatory.

Figure.8: Flow lines and velocity profiles under a submerged bridge.

In actual practice, as the bridge deck and pier co-exist, the mechanism of local scour around the piers and pressure scour due to submerged flow get superimposed on each other resulting in a highly complex flow modification. The horseshoe vortex around the pier is expected to get compressed vertically, causing more turbulence and shear stress on the bed.

5. Model Formulation
Since this is a very complex process, model formulation and study is a much difficult task. Latest studies reveal that the scour depth due to pressure flow scour under the submerged bridge deck is time dependent which makes it further complex. Pressure flow (vertical contraction) scour may be analyzed by estimating the effective depth in the bridge opening for critical velocity to occur at equilibrium scour. The effective depth is determined based on the opening that allows stream flow to pass through at the location of maximum scour. Figure 8 illustrates pressure scour and defines key parameters taking part.

Figure.9: Parameter definition at maximum scour. If hu is greater than hb, then there is a vertical contraction of flow that may result in scour. There is a stagnation streamline that shows the division of the approach flow between that which passes under the bridge and that which overtops the bridge. The effective approach flow depth, hue, represents the portion of the approach flow that is directed under the bridge. For partially submerged bridge decks, the bridge deck blocks the approach flow, but there is no weir flow over the deck, and all of the approach flow passes under the bridge. At section C
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seperation zone thickness, t, is indicated where there is effectively no flow conveyance. The flow field is effectively conveyed through the opening represented by the sum of flow contraction depth at the point of maximum scour, hc, and ys.

Figure.10: Velocity and shear stress distributions. In the above figure, Shear stress applied by the flowing water, o, is less than the critical shear stress, c, in the approach, as is required for clear water approach conditions. However, if there is sufficient contraction, this relationship will reverse at section B, initiating scour. At section C, a scour hole will form to increase conveyance until the applied shear is less than or equal to c.

6. Experimental Studies
Arneson and Abts experiments were conducted at Colorado State University in a 300-ft-long by 9-ft-wide flume with a bed slope adjustable up to 2 percent. Maximum flow circulation capacity was 100 ft3/s. Data were collected with various flow conditions, four separate bed materials, and six model bridge deck elevations. Arneson and Abt conducted a total of 72 tests. Based on these experiments they were able to conclude with an equation for equilibrium scour depth which is given in fig.2. Later Umbrell conducted a series of flume tests in the FHWA TFHRC J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Laboratory. Using the mass conservation law and assuming that the velocity under a bridge at scour equilibrium is equal to the critical velocity of the upstream flow, proposed the equation given in fig.7. Several other significant experimental
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studies were conducted all over the world. In india also several studies were conducted. It includes the experimental studies by D. V. S. Verma, Baldev Setia and Upain Bhatia of NIT Kurukshetra and they concluded that the maximum scour depth is equal to the magnitude by which the flow depth is constricted because of bridge submergence at incipient velocity of flow. The recent studies were conducted by the FHWA, used an experimental flume of 70 ft long, 6 ft wide, and 1.8 ft deep with clear sides and a stainless steel bottom with a slope of 0.0007 percent. A test section that consisted of a narrowed channel that was 10 ft long and 2.07 ft wide and had a 1.3-ft sediment recess was installed in the middle of the flume. A model bridge was installed in the narrowed section above the sediment recess. A honeycomb flow straightener and a trumpet-shaped inlet were carefully designed to smoothly guide the flow into the test channel. Water was supplied by a circulation system with a sump of 7,400 ft3 and a pump with capacity of 10.6 ft3/s with the flow depth controlled by a tailgate. The discharge was controlled by a LabViewTM program and checked by an electromagnetic flow meter. To test the effect of sediment size on scour morphology, two uniform sands (gradation coefficient < 1.5) were used in the experiments. The effect of bridge girder configuration was examined using a three-girder deck and a six-girder deck. The detailed experimental procedure is explained in Submerged Flow Bridge Scour under Clear Water Conditions published by FHWA in August 2012. They verified with PIV(Particle Image Velocimetry) and CFD analyses and proposed a final design equation for submerged flow which is given in fig:7 considering the stagnation thickness also.

7. Scope of study
In India we are still using the age-old LaceyInglis method for the estimation of the design scour depth around bridge elements such as pier, abutment, guide bank, spur and groyne. Codal provisions are seen to produce too large a scour depth around bridge elements resulting in bridge sub-structures that lead to increased construction costs. Limitations that exist in the codes of practice are illustrated in Kothyari,U.C in Indian practice on estimation of scour around bridge piers(2006). It also not considered a well-defined method for design for pressure scour. Even though it is expected in flood condition, the pressure scour can bring catastrophic damage. Pressure flow generally only occurs in extreme flood events, but these types of events are relevant for estimation of scour. When flow is sufficiently high so that it begins to approach the elevation of the bridge deck, some of the flow may be diverted laterally to the bridge approaches. Since the bridge approaches are often lower than the bridge deck, this diversion may reduce the scour potential under the bridge. Designers must evaluate the effects of scour under the bridge as well as potential damage caused by flow diversion.

Little research has been dedicated to another destructive scour, submerged-flow bridge scour or pressure flow scour which can cause significant damages to bridges when partially or totally submerged during a large flood. And these results are not implemented now. Even though it is already started to use the research results by FHWA in U.S. Department of Transportation, it should need a world wide application.

8. Conclusion
This paper is based only some surface study on pressure scour and its researches. The recent results published by FHWA are much convincing than the previous models used for design scour depth for pressure flow scour. It has been observed that the submerge-flow bridge scour is not an independent phenomenon and is occur with local scour also. It has been also observed that the depth of scour also depends on time. The depth of scour increases as the time increases until equilibrium state. Since the modeling for pressure flow is a much difficult task, more sophisticated techniques and studies incorporating all the parameters are required to develop a better one.

9. References
Submerged Flow Bridge Scour Under Clear Water Conditions, Publication No. FHWA-HRT-12034, August 2012 Zhai, Yuan, "TIME-DEPENDENT SCOUR DEPTH UNDER BRIDGE-SUBMERGED FLOW" (2010). Civil EngineeringTheses,Dissertations,andStudentResearch.Paper4.http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ci vilengdiss/4 D. V. S. Verma, Baldev Setia and Upain Bhatia, CONSTRICTION SCOUR IN PRESSURIZED FLOW CONDITION, IJE Transactions B: Applications, Vol. 17, No. 3, October 2004 237. J. Guol, K. Kerenyi , H. Shanl, Z. Xiel, Y. Zhai!, and L. Zhao, Time-Dependent Scour Depth under Bridge-Submerged Flow, Proceedings_5-ICSE-02_Bridge_Scour. Kothyari.U.C,Indian practice on estimation of scour around bridge piers, Sadhana Vol. 32, Part 3, June 2007, pp. 187197. Printed in India

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