• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.36 no.3 s.134
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• pp.507-520
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• 2003

A V-shaped riffle is an artificial hydraulic structure haying two wings from the streamside with a narrow opening in between. It is usually made of crushed stones or large boulders. It limits channel width and accelerates the flow through the constricted section causing a local scour just downstream. The V-shaped riffle provides with a unique aquatic habitat by forming a pool and sandbars around the pool edge, increasing local morphologic, hydraulic and sedimentological diversity. This study investigates experimentally the scour characteristics of the V-shaped riffle in the sandbed stream and proposes a predictive equation for the scour. Total 45 cases of experiments were conducted to examine the effect of hydraulic factors and configuration of V-shaped riffle on the geometry of scour holes. From the comparison of the experimental results of this study with the predictive equation of spur dike by Breusers and Raudkivi(1991), it is found that their predictive equation of spur dike underestimates the maximum scour depth downstream of the V-shaped riffle. h new predictive equation for the maximum scour depth was developed using the non-dimensional hydraulic and geometrical variables. The parameters used in the proposed equations were determined using the experimental data. The analysis reveals that the scour depth is dependent dominantly on the Froude number at the opening of the V-shaped riffle, while the angle of riffle and the opening width also affect the scour depth. The proposed equation for the scour of V-shaped riffle well agrees with the experimental data. It can be used for estimating the scour of the V-shaped riffle in sandbed streams.