Improving Transportation Infrastructure Safety Through Flow and Scour Analysis at Porous Riverbank Protection Structures
Project Description: Protecting riverbanks from erosion during flood events is critical for ensuring the safety of transportation infrastructure located near rivers. Such erosion can undermine roadways and bridge foundations, leading to failures such as those observed on I-40 in North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. In locations where riverbank erosion poses a significant transportation asset risk, porous riverbank protection structures such as engineered logjams (ELJs) have been implemented as alternatives to traditional revetment approaches. The geometric design of ELJs deflects flow away from banks while their porosity reduces drag and toe scour, thereby limiting additional flood-related failure risks. Additionally, ELJs can be constructed incrementally using off-channel crane equipment, which reduces construction costs associated with channel diversion and dewatering. Improved tools are needed to predict how flow deflection and scour vary with ELJ porosity and internal structure. Advancing this knowledge will support more reliable ELJ design and reduce the risk of over- or under-design. A larger database of flow and scour depth measurements for ELJs with a range of porosities and characteristics is needed to improve scour prediction methods and provide flow validation data for two- and three-dimensional hydraulic models. To address these research gaps, laboratory experiments will be conducted in a 32-foot-long open-channel flume to quantify flow and scour at porous bank protection structures. Model ELJs will be fabricated using 3D printing to have identical external geometry but systematic variation in porosity and pore configuration. Flow fields will be measured using UMKC’s particle image velocimetry (PIV) system that can measure turbulent flow fields around channel obstructions with high resolution (<1 mm vector resolution). These PIV measurements will be used to quantify flow deflection and shear stress amplification. In addition, clear-water scour experiments will document the maximum scour depth for each ELJ configuration.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $200,883.00
-
Contract Numbers:
69A3552348335
-
Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Performing Organizations:
Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
University of Missouri Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri United States 64110 -
Principal Investigators:
Wyssmann, Micah A.
- Start Date: 20260801
- Expected Completion Date: 20290531
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Erosion control; Flow; Geometric design; Scour; Stream bank
- Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Geotechnology; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01987036
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348335
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 23 2026 5:50PM