Flow measurement around scoured bridge piers using Acoustic-Doppler Velocimeter (ADV)

Recently flow investigation around cylindrical obstacles has attracted much attention considering its application to river and offshore environment. Scour around obstacles is the major cause of their foundation failure. This failure occurs in extreme cases of unsteady flows interacting with a given structure and with changing bed condition. In order to reduce the tremendous amount of expenses involved in either over-designing those foundations or rebuilding damaged structures, precise flow measurement instrument is essential. In the present study, the Acoustic-Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) has been utilized in the laboratory to investigate the flow characteristics around cylindrical piers on a scoured bed under various wave-current combinations. Some of these results are reported in this paper and the suitability of the ADV in this field is explained. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.