Effect of trapezoidal collars as a scour countermeasure around wing-wall abutments

Local scour around bridge abutments is a widespread problem that can result in structural failure. Collars can be used as a countermeasure to reduce the scour depth. In this study, the temporal scour development around a wing-wall abutment was investigated with and without collars. The tests were carried out under clear-water conditions for different abutment lengths, with collars of different sizes placed at the bed level. When no collar was used in the experiments, 70% of the maximum scour depth occurred in less than 2 h. However, when a collar with a width greater than the length of the abutment was used, no scour was observed for up to 200 min from the beginning of the experiments. The results show that an increase in the collar width not only led to a lag time for the onset of scouring but also reduced the maximum scour depth. Moreover, an increased collar width led to a better performance in mitigating scouring around smaller abutments. Generally, the scour depth decreased by 9%-37% with different collar widths.

Large-scale experimental study on scour around offshore wind monopiles under irregular waves

The Keulegan-Carpenter(KC)number is the main dimensionless parameter that affects the local scour of offshore wind power monopile foundations.This study conducted large-scale(1:13)physical model tests to study the local scour shape,equilibrium scour depth,and local scour volume of offshore wind power monopiles under the action of irregular waves with different KC numbers.Systematic experiments were carried out with the KC number ranging from 1.0 to 13.0.With a small KC number(KC<6),and especially when the KC number was less than 4,the scour mainly occurred on both cross-flow sides of the monopile with a low scour depth.When the KC number exceeded 4,the shape of the scour hole changed from a fan to an ellipse,and the maximum scour depth increased significantly with KC.With a large KC number(KC>6),the proposed method better predicted the equilibrium scour depth when the wave broke.In addition,according to the results of three-dimensional terrain scanning,the relationship between the local equilibrium scour volume of a single offshore wind power monopile and the KC number was derived.This provided a rational method for estimation of the riprap redundancy for monopile protection against scour.

Development of current-induced scour beneath elevated subsea pipelines

When scour occurs beneath a subsea pipeline and develops to a certain extent,the pipeline may experience vortex-induced vibrations,through which there can be a potential accumulation of fatigue damage.However,when a pipeline is laid on an uneven seabed,certain sections may have an elevation with respect to the far-field seabed,e o,at which the development of scour would vary.This work focused on predicting the development of the scour depth beneath subsea pipelines with an elevation under steady flow conditions.A range of pipe elevation-to-diameter ratios(i.e.0≤e o/D≤0.5)have been considered for laboratory experiments conducted in a sediment flume.The corresponding equilibrium scour depths and scour time scales were obtained;experimental data from published literature have been collected and added to the present study to produce a more complete analysis database.The correlation between existing empirical equations for predicting the time scale and the experimental data was assessed,resulting in a new set of constants.A new manner of converting the scour time scale into a non-dimensional form was found to aid the empirical equations in attaining a better correlation to the experimental data.Subsequently,a new empirical equation has also been proposed in this work,which accounts for the influence of e o/D on the non-dimensional scour time scale.It was found to have the best overall correlation with the experimental data.Finally,full-scale predictions of the seabed gaps and time scales were made for the Tasmanian Gas Pipeline(TGP).