Experimental Analysis of Effect of Unsteadiness of Horseshoe Vortex on Local Pier Scour

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.