Early Warning System Development for Highway Bridge Scouring

Abstract

Scour problem plays a key role in many bridge failures that occur around the globe. More than 1000 bridges have collapsed over the past 30 years in the U.S.A., with 60% of the failures due to scour. This serious problem also happens in many East-Asian countries such as Taiwan and Japan, owing to the fact that these areas are subject to several typhoon, hurricanes and flood events each year during the summer and fall seasons. Therefore, it is necessary to have a reliable estimation of scour hole around bridge piers to ensure that adequate measures are taken to prevent erosion related failure throughout the service life of the structure. Collaborated with the interdisciplinary institute of the National applied Research Laboratories (NARLabs), we have developed and successfully demonstrated the bridge multi-hazards early warning system in the field of Taiwan river basins.