Flow Imaging around Bridge Abutments

Authors:

Upain Kumar Bhatia (Maharishi Markandeshwar Engineering College, Mullana, Haryana)

Baldev Setia (MM Engineering College, Mullana)

Keywords: flow imaging, flow visualization, abutment.

Abstract:

Visualization of flow modification around a hydraulic structure can make scour studies effective, efficient and economical. It had been a long-established tool for supporting fluid mechanics research. Different techniques used for flow visualization include dye injection, mud flow visualization, thymol blue visualization, hydrogen bubble technique, wet paint technique etc, but no single technique gives the complete understanding of the flow modification around a structure. A laboratory investigation had been carried out to visualize the flow modification around model bridge abutments in three different zones. Wet paint technique had been utilized to study the flow modification near the channel bed, Reflective powder technique had been used for visualizing modification on the surface of water flowing past a model abutment and hydrogen bubble technique is employed for investigating flow fields in between the above two extremities. Experiments were conducted in a recirculating flume and a wind tunnel under laboratory controlled flow conditions. The visualizations had been made using laboratory generated facilities and captured with the help of a digital camera. A qualitative comparison of the techniques is also presented in this paper.