A comparative study of local scour depth around bridge piers

Abstract Scour is the leading cause of bridge collapse beneath any pier located within waterway. A numerical-based hydraulic model named Hydrologic Engineering Centre River Analysis System and a mathematical Florida Department Transport were implemented to investigate their performance accuracy in estimating maximum scour depth piers where large small-scale physical prototypes are used as benchmark. The main findings that an effective tool when employing Colorado State University equation, which compares well with irrespective variation piers' size shape. Also, it has achieved more consistent results than Froehlich methodologies.