Investigation of Scour Reduction on the Bridge Abutment with a Protective Breakwater

Bridge abutments are among vulnerable structures during flooding events. Local scour around abutments seems to be the main cause for structural damage. It is well known that this type of scour occurs due to the contraction of flow and subsequent vortices and eddies formation. The complexity of flow behavior in channels as well as the large number of involved parameters has limited the use of numerical models. In contrary، many laboratory investigations have been conducted and numerous techniques have been developed to reduce the size and depth of scour hole around the abutments. In the present research، breakwater was employed for reducing the scour. To do this، three lengths and five distances were tested and for each case the scour hole was measured. The results are applicable to finding the position and the length of the protecting breakwater.