ABSTRACT

Hangzhou Bay Bridge, located in Hangzhou Bay, is one of the longest cross-sea bridges in the world. An unavoidable difficulty for management of Hangzhou Bay Bridge is that some piers, especially piers which support the sightseeing tower, usually suffer local scour. The local scour gradually weakens the basis of the piers and poses a potential threaten to the safety of the Bridge. The present work adopted an experimental model to study effects of prevention technology of piers from local scour. The model was conducted in moveable-bed and Twisted Duplex Blocks were selected as the prevention tool. The results indicate that, different densities of lay-out of Blocks can reduce the depth of local scour, and erosion of sediment around the piers can be protected in varying degrees. In addition, the effect of protection in which Blocks installed with filter layers will be improved, compared to that the same layout case of blocks. Furthermore, the applicability of methods of implementing Twisted Duplex Blocks were discussed.