Scour Assessment Resources

Scour Assessment

This website presents a compilation of background resources to accompany Australian Water School webinars and courses covering advances in scour assessment. View the recording of our free introductory bridge scour webinar here.

Our second bridge scour webinar addresses advances in bridge scour assessment methodologies. View the recording here.

The webinar Q&A transcript, presenter details, and presentation files are available here.

Bridge Scour Essentials Course

The free bridge scour webinars lead into a 3-part course covering Bridge Scour Essentials. Course attendees use real-world examples to estimate pier scour, abutment scour, contractions scour, and total scour. The course also covers proper model set-up and extraction of results from 1D and 2D hydraulic models (3D scour is covered separately here.)

The course recordings and workshop materials are available to complete at your own pace, with on-demand registration available here.

Bridge Scour Inspection and Monitoring

Post-flood event ground surveys of bridges may give a misleading picture of scour effects, since scour holes may fill during flood recession. Observations of the dynamics can also help predict clear water vs live bed conditions for scour estimates. Those interested in continuous inspection equipment may wish to view a webinar with diver Brian Abbott and Dr. Jessica Daignault available here. Selected images from the presentation are shown above. Join us for our December AWS webinar dedicated to underwater inspections in which Brian and Jessica will address monitoring of bridge piers and other submerged structures.

Additional Resources

Download the FHWA toolbox: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/hydraulics/software/toolbox404.cfm

Access FHWA Hydraulic Engineering Circulars and Hydraulic Design Series Documents compiled here:

Download Austroads Guide to Bridge Technology Part 8 here:

Bridge scour is covered in Australian Rainfall and Runoff Book 6 – Flood Hydraulics, Section 3.8

Read about the scour-related failure and replacement of Western Australia’s Fitzroy Crossing Bridge here. Check out the Engineers Australia article on the bridge replacement, including impressive time-lapse videos of the reconstruction here.

Learn more about SRH-2D with Casey Kramer’s benchmarking study here:

Download the TMR bridge scour manual here:

Learn about 3D CFD modelling for rock scour in our free webinar here.

Melville B W and Coleman S E, “Bridge Scour”, Water Resources Publications, 2000.

Coleman S E and Melville B W (2001), “Case Study; New Zealand Bridge Scour Experiences”, ASCE Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Vol. 127, No. 7, July 2001.