Local scour, which accounts for the majority of scour-related depth loss, poses a serious threat to the stability and longevity of structures such as bridge piers and seawalls. Traditional methods, which can range from field observations to numerical simulations, provide valuable insights but often fall short when applied to complex pile group configurations. Researchers Renzhi Wang, Qingfei Gao, Zhonglong Li, and Min Luo offer a framework for future design standards. They build on the foundational work of others and introduce a semiempirical approach to more accurately estimate scour depth.
Their study, "Semiempirical Solution for Determining the Clear Water Local Scour Depth of Pile Groups," addresses a critical challenge in hydraulic and structural engineering, that of predicting local scour around pile foundations in water environments. The methodology proposed by the authors offers practicing engineers a practical and validated tool for assessing scour risk in pile group foundations, especially in clear water conditions. Their analysis will help engineers working on bridge design, coastal infrastructure, and energy-related projects to improve foundation resilience, reduce maintenance costs, and mitigate failure risks. Learn about this research on scour in the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering at https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/JHEND8.HYENG-14307. The abstract is below.
Abstract
Local scour around pile groups is an important and challenging problem in various engineering applications. In this work, we develop a semiempirical solution for the clear water local scour depth of pile groups on the basis of a well-established theoretical framework and experimental local scour data. This solution has two innovations: 1) extending the original local scour assumption for single piles to pile groups and 2) establishing semiempirical formulas for the clear water local scour depth of pile groups by integrating the pile configuration, wake vortex, and local scour effects. The results of the proposed solution are validated against experimentally documented local scour data, with a coefficient of determination of 0.873 and a root mean square error of 0.0905.
Explore this improvement in pile scour estimating in the ASCE Library: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/JHEND8.HYENG-14307.
