Scour Evaluation Using HEC RAS Model: A Case Study On Musiri Bridge, Trichy, India

Bridge scour is a natural phenomenon that can cause serious damage to infrastructure. It occurs when water flows around bridge piers or abutments, eroding the soil or sediment that supports them. This can lead to structural failure, which poses a significant risk to public safety. To mitigate this risk, engineers must design bridges with scour in mind, taking into account factors such as flow velocity, sediment transport, and erosion resistance. In doing so, they can ensure that our infrastructure remains safe and sustainable for years to come. Bridge scour evaluation is a crucial step to assure the structure’s safety and integrity. There are several approaches to designing, evaluating, and inspecting bridges for scour. Scour assessment is significant since it might jeopardize the bridge’s integrity. Floods scouring bed material surrounding bridge foundations are the most prevalent cause of bridge failures. Proper scour analysis is required as scour has found to be a serious threat to bridge structures since it increases the risk of collapse of bridge. Moreover, scour seriously affects the capacity of the bridge and causes structural damage. This research focusses on the scour analysis of Musiri bridge (Thanthai Periyar bridge) located on Cauvery River in Trichy. The bridge is subjected to local scour. Hydraulic Engineering Centre, River Analysis Simulation (HEC-RAS) software is used to analyze the effect of scour at different cross sections of the river, both in upstream and downstream. A planform analysis has been done across the bridge for a time period of over 10 years using open-source satellite data with the help of Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) software. This centre line of the river across the bridge is mapped across different years to understand the effect of scour for the period of 2013 to 2023. Remedial measures have been suggested to combat the effect of scour in the study area. Bridges are just one piece of a larger puzzle, and their construction and maintenance have environmental and social impacts that must be carefully managed. Hence, it’s important to consider the broader implications of infrastructure development and it should ensure safe and simple design of bridge constructions so that the infrastructure investments can benefit both present and future generations.