Local scour around two side-by-side cylindrical bridge piers under ice-covered conditions

Abstract

Abstract In the current study, 108 flume experiments with non-uniform, cohesionless sediments have been done to investigate the local scour process around four pairs of side-by-side bridge piers under both open channel and ice-covered flow conditions. Similar to local scour around bridge piers under open channel conditions and a single bridge pier, it was observed in the experiments that the maximum scour depth always occurred at the upstream face of the pier under ice-covered conditions. Further, the smaller the pier size and the greater the spacing distance between the bridge piers, the weaker the horseshoe vortices around the bridge piers, and, thus, the shallower the scour holes around them. Finally, empirical equations were developed to estimate the maximum scour depth around two side-by-side bridge piers under both open channel and ice-covered flow conditions.