• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.537-544
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• 2001

Bridge dynamic behaviors are examined under seismic excitations including the local scour effect. The corresponding simplified mechanical model, which can also consider the effect of other influence elements, is proposed to simulate the bridge motions. The scour depth around the pier is estimated by the CSU equation recommended by the HEC-18, and the local scour effect upon global bridge motions is then investigated by applying various foundation stiffness based upon the reduced embedded depths. From the results, it is found that seismic responses of a bridge with the same scour depth level for both piers increase as the scour depth increase due to the local scour effect. The scour effect is found to be significant under weak excitations and still to be quite notable even for moderate excitations.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.145-164
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• 2015

Bridge scour is the predominant cause of overwater bridge failures in North America and around the world. Several sensing systems have been developed over the years to detect the extent of scour so that preventative actions can be performed in a timely manner. These sensing systems have drawbacks, such as signal inaccuracy and discontinuity, installation difficulty, and high cost. Therefore, attempts to develop more efficient monitoring schemes continue. In this study, the viability of using optical dissolved oxygen (DO) probes for monitoring scour depths was explored. DO levels are very low in streambed sediments, as compared to the standard level of oxygen in flowing water. Therefore, scour depths can be determined by installing sensors to monitor DO levels at various depths along the buried length of a bridge pier or abutment. The measured DO is negligible when a sensor is buried but would increase significantly once scour occurs and exposes the sensor to flowing water. A set of experiments was conducted in which four dissolved oxygen probes were embedded at different soil depths in the vicinity of a mock bridge pier inside a laboratory flume simulating scour conditions. The results confirmed that DO levels jumped drastically when sensors became exposed during scour hole evolution, thereby providing discrete measurements of the maximum scour depth. Moreover, the DO probes could detect any subsequent refilling of the scour hole through the deposition of sediments. The effect of soil permeability on the sensing response time was also investigated.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.349-356
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• 2021

Since the 1960s, traffic infrastructure, such as bridges, has increased rapidly in Korea as urbanization and industrialization progressed due to economic growth. As the scale of the bridge becomes larger, stability analysis of the superstructure of the bridge is being conducted actively, but scour stability analysis for the substructure of the bridge has not been conducted sufficiently. This study is a basic investigation to prevent large-scale disasters caused by scouring in bridge piers. A simple linear regression model was used to analyze the scour depth calculated through seventeen scour depth calculation formulae, and the scour depth measured through hydraulic model experiments. As a result, the Coleman (1971) formula was the best method among the scour depth calculation formulae, and the Froehlich (1987) formula was the most effective method for calculating the scour depth. In addition, a review using a simple regression model confirmed that the scour depth calculation formulae of CSU (1993), Coleman (1971), and Froehlich (1987) can predict a similar scour depth by reflecting domestic stream characteristics. This study can calculate the scour depth reflecting the environmental conditions of Korea in future stream design.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.231-246
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• 2017

A recent work by the authors has demonstrated the feasibility of scour evaluation for Kao-Ping-Hsi Cable-Stayed Bridge simply based on ambient vibration measurements. To further attain the goal of scour monitoring, a key challenge comes from the interference of several environmental factors that may also significantly alter the pier frequencies without the change of scour depth. Consequently, this study attempts to investigate the variation in certain modal frequencies of this bridge induced by several environmental factors. Four sets of pier vibration measurements were taken either during the season of plum rains, under regular summer days without rain, or in a period of typhoon. These signals are analyzed with the stochastic subspace identification and empirical mode decomposition techniques. The variations of the identified modal frequencies are then compared with those of the corresponding traffic load, air temperature, and water level. Comparison of the analyzed results elucidates that both the traffic load and the environmental temperature are negatively correlated with the bridge frequencies. However, the traffic load is clearly a more dominant factor to alternate the identified bridge deck frequency than the environmental temperature. The pier modes are also influenced by the passing traffic on the bridge deck, even though with a weaker correlation. In addition, the variation of air temperature follows a similar tendency as that of the passing traffic, but its effect on changing the bridge frequencies is obviously not as significant. As for the effect from the alternation of water level, it is observed that the frequency baselines of the pier modes may positively correlate with the water level during the seasons of plum rains and typhoon.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.203-211
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• 2008

More recently, the massive marine bridges in a ship passage have been constructed on the sea. Therefore, the ship impact protection for the bridge-piers are installed to consider the possibility of vessel collision danger. Due to the ship impact protection, the pier-scour characteristics are changed in comparison with the condition without the ship impact protection (SIP). In this study, the physical modeling for the Incheon Sea-Crossing Bridge was performed to analyze the pier-scour characteristics with respect to the vessel collision protection. The rigid and movable bed tests were conducted to evaluate the flow pattern, scour depth, and scourhole with and without the ship impact protection. The experimental results for the maximum scour depth is increased 0.24 m in W1 pier at the same location and 2.4 m in W2+3+4 piers due to the SIP installation. Especially, the maximum scour depth in W2+3+4 piers was occurred around the SIP.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.41-47
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• 1999

More than 100 bridges in Korea have been annually collapsed or badly damaged by the scouring around bridge piers, particularly in the flood season. To prevent from such a tragedy, the fundamental study on the bridge scouring is required, which is essential not only to estimate the scour depth with reliability but to take it into consideration in its design. However, it is not easy to find out the physical scour mechanism since many factors on the scour are coupled with. Moreover, there exists none of the measured data sufficiently for the primary research on the bridge scour depths. In this study the field measurements are carried out to provide the fundamental data for the research and the design. Scouring depth, pier width, flow depth, and the approaching velocity and degree of pier nose are measured broadly in small and medium streams. From these measurements the present situation on bridge scours can be understood and some of important factors to affect the stability of bridges are analyzed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.2B
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• pp.111-120
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• 2009

A local scour around a bridge pier is known as one of important factors of bridge collapse. Two approaches are usually used in estimating a scour depth in practice. One is to use empirical formulas, and the other is to use computational methods. But the use of empirical formulas is limited to predict a scour depth under similar conditions to which the formulas were derived. Computational methods are currently too expensive to be applied to practical engineering problems. This study presented the application of artificial neural networks (ANN) to the prediction of a scour depth around a bridge pier at an equilibrium state. This study also investigated various ANN algorithms for estimating a scour depth, such as Backpropagation Network, Radial Basis Function Network, and Generalized Regression Network. Preliminary study showed that ANN models resulted in very wide range of errors in predicting a scour depth. To solve this problem this study incorporated cluster analysis into ANN. The incorporation of cluster analysis provided better estimations of scour depth up to 42% compared with other approaches.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.477-485
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• 1997

Recent internal and external bridge failures due to pier and abutment scour have emphasized the need for better methods of scour depth estimation. This paper compares the hydraulic analysis of the Namhan River Bridge over the Namhan River using one-dimensional models. WSPRO & HEC-2, and the two-dimensional model. TABS-MD based on the procedures presented in HEC-18 published by the U.S. FEdral Highway Administration. A comparison of estimated scour depth for this research based on the results from both one-dimensional and two-dimensional model is presented. At the same time, field measurement has been performed before and after flood using sounding instrument. Fathometer (DE-719C). A comparison between estimated and measured scour depth at bridge is also presented. Result shows that there is all the difference between estimated and measured scour depth due to dissimilarity between laboratory and field conditions. Also, it is difficult to measure the maximum scour depth accurately due to refilling. Therefore development of scour measuring equipment which can be used during peak flood, and derivation of empirical model appropriate for internal river system seems urgent.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.2B
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• pp.169-175
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• 2008

The clear-water scour experiments were conducted to shed light on the unsteadiness of the horseshoe vortex around a bridge pier since the fluctuations of velocity components and unsteadiness of the horseshoe vortex can be considered as one of the main factors on local scour. The characteristics of the flow speed and turbulence around a bridge pier was examined using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) and the flow visualization with kaolin clay particles upstream of a bridge pier. The outcomes of this study on the turbulence characteristics related with scour mechanism were presented with the quadrant analysis, the integral time scales, and the bed shear stresses before and after scouring, respectively. The bed shear stress before scouring was approximately quadruple times higher than that of the equilibriums state. It implies that the unsteadiness of the horseshoe vortex would play a significant role in the initial development of scour depth. Therefore, the bimodal distribution of flow velocity was identified as one of the mechanical properties of the horseshoe vortex and the unsteadiness of horseshoe vortex can be one of the major characteristics to understand the flow sturucture and local pier scour.

• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.183-195
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• 2014

Scour is one of the leading causes of overwater bridge failures worldwide. While monitoring systems have already been implemented or are still being developed, they suffer from limitations such as high costs, inaccuracies, and low reliability, among others. Also, most sensors only measure scour depth at one location and near the pier. Thus, the objective is to design a simple, low cost, scour hole topography monitoring system that could better characterize the entire depth, shape, and size of bridge scour holes. The design is based on burying a robust, waterproofed, piezoelectric sensor strip in the streambed. When scour erodes sediments to expose the sensor, flowing water excites it to cause the generation of time-varying voltage signals. An algorithm then takes the time-domain data and maps it to the frequency-domain for identifying the sensor's resonant frequency, which is used for calculating the exposed sensor length or scour depth. Here, three different sets of tests were conducted to validate this new technique. First, a single sensor was tested in ambient air, and its exposed length was varied. Upon verifying the sensing concept, a waterproofed prototype was buried in soil and tested in a tank filled with water. Sensor performance was characterized as soil was manually eroded away, which simulated various scour depths. The results confirmed that sensor resonant frequencies decreased with increasing scour depths. Finally, a network of 11 sensors was configured to form a distributed monitoring system in the lab. Their exposed lengths were adjusted to simulate scour hole formation and evolution. Results showed promise that the proposed sensing system could be scaled up and used for bridge scour topography monitoring.