Title

Local Sediment Scour Model Tests for the Royal Park Bridge Piers

Date

1999

Keywords

bridges, critical velocity, design, Florida, flow velocities, flume, model studies, prototype, scour, Turners Falls, Massachusetts, upstream

Summary

Two small scale (large model) local sediment scour tests were performed on a model of the two largest and most complex piers for the Royal Park Replacement Bridge. This bridge is located on Royal Palm Way at the crossing of the ICCW (intracoastal waterway) in the West Palm Beach, Florida. The model tests were conducted by the University of Florida and the USGS Laboratory in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. All tests were conducted at velocities just below critical velocity. (i.e. just below the velocity needed to initiate sediment movement on the flat bed upstream of the structure) for the uniform diameter, 0.8 mm sand used in the flume. The local scour depths for the prototype pier, were computed by two different methods from the measured model scour depths. The 'Conventional Method' assumes that the scour depth at transition from clearwater to live bed scour conditions in the model study should be multiplied by the geometric scale of the model to obtain the prototype scour depth. A second method referred to here as Sheppard's Method takes into consideration the fact that the sediment in the model test is not scaled properly and that the prototype scour depth depends on the design flow velocity. The model parameters with the measured and corrected (corrected for test velocity being slightly less than critical) scour depths are given in Table ES-1. The prototype scour depths for four different velocities believed to span 100 and 500 year return interval flows are given in Table ES-2.

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