Monitoring Scour at Bridge Piers in Rivers with Supercritical Flows

Bridges crossing rivers wider than 50 m are typically supported by piers. In a mobile riverbed, scour occurs around bridge piers, and it is the main cause of collapses worldwide, especially during floods. While pier has been extensively studied, there still lack measuring systems for monitoring in field. this paper, we present existing devices measurement analyze their comparative advantages disadvantages. A study case with scoured supercritical flow presented. Results show that patterns previously reported at laboratory scale also occur The measured supports hypothesis flows, even when having high speeds, do not produce higher subcritical flows. possible explanation linked sediment sizes flows discussed. Further, field measurements piers needed to enhance our understanding complex nearly unexplored situation.