New Approach to Predicting Local Scour Downstream of Grade-Control Structure

Despite the numerous studies on scouring processes, the prediction of scour-hole dimensions downstream of hydraulic structures remains challenging because of the complexity of the phenomenon and its dynamic sensitivity to structure and sediment properties. This study experimentally focuses on scour-hole development downstream of a sloped grade-control structure (GCS) in alluvial channels. A large series of laboratory experiments were carried out in a rectangular channel with a noncohesive sediment bed. Based on the data from this study and data collected from previous studies, the effect of the downstream face slope of a GCS on scour morphology was analyzed. In this regard, it was found that the face slope has an effect only if it is smaller than the slope of the upstream equilibrium scour side obtained with a GCS of a vertical downstream face. Before reaching an equilibrium state, the scour process evolves into three distinct phases, a very rapid initial phase, an intermediate gradual phase, and an equilibrium phase. A general empirical expression for predicting temporal scour evolution is proposed and extended to different types of GCS. Moreover, a new scaling approach is proposed that leads to the derivation of new equations predicting equilibrium scour profiles with different entering jet-flow typologies. To make these equations operational, a series of estimating expressions for the characteristic lengths of equilibrium scour holes is also proposed.