Estimating Equilibrium Scour Depth at Cylindrical Piers in Experimental Studies

Using data from six very long experiments on local scour at single cylindrical piers, some of the existing equilibrium criteria found in the literature are assessed. It is found that common criteria, which consider scour depth increments in 24 h or the observation of horizontal plateaux in records of scour depth time evolution, can incur important errors on the equilibrium scour depth. Using some of the expressions for time evolution found in the literature to fit the experimental data and infer equilibrium scour depth through extrapolation to infinite time, it is found that the equilibrium scour depth cannot be specified, in general, for experiments shorter than one to two weeks. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000410. (C) 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.