EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON SEDIMENT DISTRIBUTION AT CHANNEL BIFURCATION

1 INTRODUCTION Bifurcations are typical features in alluvial rivers as well as in estuaries. In braided rivers confluence and bifurcation occur regularly (Fig.1). A bifurcation occurs when a river splits into two branches (Fig. 2). This happens when a middle bar forms in a channel or a distributary carries flow from the main river. In estuaries when the direction of tidal flow turns around an island, a confluence becomes bifurcation and vice versa. A braided river in the upstream end o…     

SCOUR MITIGATION AT BRIDGE PIERS USING SACRIFICIAL PILES

To mitigate scour around bridge piers, sacrificial piles are economic method where natural processes are involved. The arrangement should be such that scoured materials from the sacrificial piles should have enough volume to fill the scour hole created upstream of the pier in such a way that sediments are trapped inside the scour hole. This concept differs from earlier study made with sacrificial piles that mainly deals to reduce the strength of horseshoe vortex. To determine the effect of sacrificial piles for scour mitigation, alternative arrangements of piles were tested in front of a rectangular pier under clear-water condition and found that when the group of piles is placed at a distance of twice the projected width of the pier, for which percentage of blockage of the pier width is 60%, the scour volume can be reduced upto 61% while the maximum scour depth can be reduced upto 50%.