The effects of height and vertical position of slot on the reduction of scour hole depth around bridge abutments

This paper investigates the effects of the height and vertical position of slots on the reduction of scouring on the periphery of rectangular abutments by constructing various slot models in different dimensions under varying flow conditions. For the purpose, 25 experiments were conducted under clear water conditions. The results of this study indicated that the closer the slot was placed to the bed, the more it would reduce scouring in models with slots featuring identical dimensions and heights equal to the half of the size of the flow depth. In other words, the slot model the height of which was measured from the water surface to underneath the erodible bed or more than the water depth showed the best performance among other slot models. The results of this research showed that the use of slots in abutments was more effective in reducing scouring than the use of bridge piers. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.