The main objective of this research is to estimate the sizes of riprap (loose rock) on highway or railroad embankments approaching bridges, that would be stable in major floods. Two assumptions about the flow direction were made: one horizontal to the bridge abutment and the other normal to the projection of the bridge abutment. Three dynamic conditions of stability of riprap were observed and classified as shaking, some movement, and large movement (washing out). Shaking is the most conservative criteria for design because it indicates more stability than is necessary, requires larger rock, and is less cost efficient. Some movement suggests a conservative design criteria and is the most desirable because it requires smaller riprap and is therefore less expensive. Large movement or washing out means the least stable condition; it may leave the structure as well as human lives exposed to danger.

Scouring is the process of soil or sediment erosion due to flowing water, which can lead to bed degradation and compromised transportation infrastructure. In the decade before 2000, over half of the 500 bridge failures in the United States were caused by flooding or scouring. To gain a better grasp of the effects of extreme weather events, such as Tropical Storm Irene, on the scouring process, this work is focused on a first principle understanding of the mechanism(s) of scour. The field of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is particu larly well suited to this task. Utilizing a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) code, the repeated impacts of a vortex dipole on a particle bed are simulated. The resulting scour characteristics and flow dynamics are investigated as a function of the Shields number. The vortex dipole propagates perpendicularly to the particle bed, resulting in the scouring of the bed and dissipation of the dipole. After completion of the scour event, the simulation is repeated four more times, where subsequent simulations use the scoured bed from the previous simulation as the initial bed form. This simulation series is conducted over a Shields number parameter space. The fluid phase is treated as a continuum and the discretized Navier-Stokes equations are solved down to the smallest scales of the flow on an Eulerian grid. The particles comprising the bed are represented by the Discrete Particle Model (DPM), whereby each individual particle is tracked in a Lagrangian framework. Particle-particle and particle-wall collisions are calculated using a soft-sphere model. The fluid phase and the solid phase are coupled through a forcing term in the fluid conservation of momentum equation, and a drag force in the particle equation of motion, governed by Newton's Second Law. Above the critical Shields number, the scour hole topography is not fundamentally altered with subsequent impacts until the scale of the scour hole reaches a critical value. At which point, the shape and scale of the scour hole significantly alters the behavior of the vortex dipole and results in strongly asymmetric scour topographies. This two-way coupling between the bed scour and the vortex dipole dynamics is the focus of this work.

Bridge scour is the leading cause of bridge damage nationwide. Successfully mitigating bridge scour problems depends on our ability to reliably estimate scour potential, design safe and economical foundation elements that account for scour potential, identify vulnerabilities related to extreme events, and recognize changes to the environmental setting that increase risk at existing bridges. This study leverages available information, gathered from several statewide resources, and adds watershed metrics to create a comprehensive, georeferenced dataset to identify parameters that correlate to bridges damaged in an extreme flood event. Understanding the underlying relationships between existing bridge condition, fluvial stresses, and geomorphological changes is key to identifying vulnerabilities in both existing and future bridge infrastructure. In creating this comprehensive database of bridge inspection records and associated damage characterization, features were identified that correlate to and discriminate between levels of bridge damage. Stream geomorphic assessment features were spatially joined to every bridge, marking the first time that geomorphic assessments have been broadly used for estimating bridge vulnerability. Stream power assessments and watershed delineations for every bridge and stream reach were generated to supplement the comprehensive database. Individual features were tested for their significance to discriminate bridge damage, and then used to create empirical fragility curves and probabilistic predictions maps to aid in future bridge vulnerability detection. Damage to over 300 Vermont bridges from a single extreme flood event, the August 28, 2011 Tropical Storm Irene, was used as the basis for this study. Damage to historic bridges was also summarized and tabulated. In some areas of Vermont, the storm rainfall recurrence interval exceeded 500 years, causing widespread flooding and damaging over 300 bridges. With a dataset of over 330 features for more than 2,000 observations to bridges that were damaged as well as not damaged in the storm, an advanced evolutionary algorithm performed multivariate feature selection to overcome the shortfalls of traditional logistic regression analysis. The analysis identified distinct combinations of variables that correlate to the observed bridge damage under extreme food events.

The Iowa Flood Center (IFC), a unit of The University of Iowa's IIHR - Hydroscience & Engineering, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources are developing a statewide floodplain boundary dataset to provide information that is critical to proper flood mitigation planning. During flooding, soil loss from agricultural land, in addition to inundation, can have a substantial economic impact on an agricultural state like Iowa. The ability to identify areas with a high potential to experience scour during flooding could assist farmers and land owners in making better land management decisions. Currently, the IFC statewide floodplain mapping program is creating annual exceedance probability floodplain data for all Iowa streams. The effort described herein has developed methods to take advantage of this large dataset, applying uniform open channel flow theory to spatially characterize scour potential using custom tools created with GIS model builder. The results of this thesis are being used by the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) and the IFC to develop a program through which certified crop consultants can help farmers make more informed land management decisions based on risk of flood related soil loss.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1977. / Typescript (photocopy). Date thesis presented: June 3, 1976. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

Matagorda Peninsula is located along an interfluvial region of the central Texas coast in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene Beaumont Clay underlies the coastal plain and inner continental shelf and controls the general slope of the coast in this region. This clay surface also creates low accommodation space for the preservation of modern sediments. As a result, only a thin (1 m) layer of transgressive Holocene muddy sand extends throughout the lower shoreface. On 15 July, 2003, Hurricane Claudette (Category 1) made landfall on the peninsula. Following the storm, the shoreface was found to be an extensively eroded surface. Most obvious on this surface was an area containing numerous scour pits on the lower shoreface. These pits extended through the Holocene sediment and into the underlying Beaumont Clay. By the following July, the shoreface exhibited a relatively flat and featureless appearance. Rapid infilling of the pits was attributed to the high sediment supply to the area from converging longshore currents and by the relatively high accommodation space offered by the scoured areas. A large amount of sediment was removed from the lower shoreface where the formation of scour pits occurred. This sediment would have been available for depositionin storm layers both inshore and offshore of the scoured area. Within scour pits, accommodation space was high, resulting in sediment deposition and rapid infilling of the pits. Outside of the scour pits, accommodation space remained low and sediment deposition did not occur. Preservation potential of the sediment record on the shoreface was low and was controlled by cycles of erosion and deposition during storm events. Antecedent geology of the shoreface and the sedimentary processes occurring during and after the storm supported arguments against the assumptions used by the classic "profile of equilibrium" model. Finally, the heavily scoured surface represents a geohazard to development of nearshore regions.

A set of large-scale laboratory experiments were conducted to study channel meander migration. Factors affecting the migration of banklines, including the ratio of curvature to channel width, bend angle, and the Froude number were tested in the experiments. The effect of each factor on the evolution of channel plan form was evaluated and quantified. The channel bankline displacement was modeled by a hyperbolic function with the inclusion of an initial migration rate and a maximum migration distance. It is found that both the initial migration rate and maximum migration distance exhibit a Gaussian distribution along a channel bend. Correlations between the distributions and the controlling parameters were then studied. Two sets of equations were developed for predicting the initial migration rate and the maximum migration distance. With the initial migration rate and maximum migration distance being developed as a function of geometric and flow parameters, a hyperbolic-function model can be applied to estimate the bankline migration distance. The prediction of channel centerline migration was also developed in this study. The channel centerline was represented with a combination of several circular curves and straight lines. Each curve with the radius of curvature and bend angle was used to describe the channel bend geometry. HEC-RAS was applied to estimate the flow hydraulic properties along the channel by adjusting the channel bed slope. The intersections of two consecutive centerlines were found to be the inflection points of the centerline migration rate. Phase lag to the bend entrance was measured and correlated with the bend length and water depth. The migration rate between two successive inflection points demonstrated a growth and decay cycle. A sine function was used to model the centerline migration rate with regression analysis of the measurement data. The method was applied to four sites of four natural rivers in Texas. The results showed that the prediction equation provides agreeable results to the centerline migration of natural rivers.

Matagorda Peninsula is located along an interfluvial region of the central Texas coast in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The Pleistocene Beaumont Clay underlies the coastal plain and inner continental shelf and controls the general slope of the coast in this region. This clay surface also creates low accommodation space for the preservation of modern sediments. As a result, only a thin (1 m) layer of transgressive Holocene muddy sand extends throughout the lower shoreface. On 15 July, 2003, Hurricane Claudette (Category 1) made landfall on the peninsula. Following the storm, the shoreface was found to be an extensively eroded surface. Most obvious on this surface was an area containing numerous scour pits on the lower shoreface. These pits extended through the Holocene sediment and into the underlying Beaumont Clay. By the following July, the shoreface exhibited a relatively flat and featureless appearance. Rapid infilling of the pits was attributed to the high sediment supply to the area from converging longshore currents and by the relatively high accommodation space offered by the scoured areas. A large amount of sediment was removed from the lower shoreface where the formation of scour pits occurred. This sediment would have been available for depositionin storm layers both inshore and offshore of the scoured area. Within scour pits, accommodation space was high, resulting in sediment deposition and rapid infilling of the pits. Outside of the scour pits, accommodation space remained low and sediment deposition did not occur. Preservation potential of the sediment record on the shoreface was low and was controlled by cycles of erosion and deposition during storm events. Antecedent geology of the shoreface and the sedimentary processes occurring during and after the storm supported arguments against the assumptions used by the classic "profile of equilibrium" model. Finally, the heavily scoured surface represents a geohazard to development of nearshore regions.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-202).

The first objective of this investigation was to derive and compare scour depth equations in a long contraction using the most widely used sediment transport equations and a variety of other equations. The second objective was to determine a procedure to find an equivalent rectangular section which would convey the same water discharge and sediment load at same slope as an irregular, natural channel in order to simplify numerical computations of scour depth and to allow appropriate application of long contraction scour theory. Some of the transport equations were manipulated algebraically to develop equations for scour depth and slope in a long contraction; others were manipulated using computer programs written especially for each equation, thus deriving scour depth equations. A computer program was written to compare characteristics of a non-rectangular section with rectangular sections of different widths in order to derive a procedure to find an equivalent rectangular transport section (a triangular section was used in this investigation) but the procedure is equally valid for any irregular, natural section. This investigation indicated that depth in the contraction is greater than in the wider approach channel. How much greater depended on which sediment-transport equation was used. Most of the derived scour equations, based on the different sediment transport equations, predicted that the y₂/y₁ ratio decreases as slope, velocity, c, and τₒ'/τ(c) or √τ/ρ)/ω increase; a few do not. Most of the analysis predicted S₂ < S₁, but a few do not. Field and experimental data provided extra evidence that the depth in the contracted section is greater than in the approach reach and how much greater. The evidence that the slope is flatter is not sufficient to be completely convincing. The equivalent rectangular transport section which can carry the same water and sediment discharge at the same slope as the natural section has a depth which is a large fraction of the deepest part of the original section, and the width is considerably narrower than the top width of the original section. Results of the investigation also indicated that the slope, velocity, sediment concentration, and sediment size have little effect on the geometry of the equivalent rectangular section.