An investigation on the impacts of the skew angle on two bridge piers with respect to the flow direction on the equilibrium scour depth at the piers front

In this study, the impacts of skew angle of two bridge piers with respect to the flow direction on the equilibrium scour depth in front of the piers under clear water condition is investigated. For this purpose, the piers are aligned with four different skew angles with respect to the flow direction. Additionally, to obtain the equilibrium scour depth in front of the piers, the experiments are performed until reaching the equilibrium time. The results show that increasing the skew-angle increases the equilibrium scour depth and time. The minimum and maximum equilibrium scour depths at both piers occur at the skew-angles of 0 and 60 degree, respectively. Regarding the analysis of the results, the maximum equilibrium scour depths in front of the piers, for the skew angles less than 28 degree occur at the upstream pier while for the skew angles greater than 28 degree is shifted to the downstream pier. In the following, formula are provided to estimate the scour depths in front of the piers, utilizing the Semi-logarithmic linear regression method and observed data.