Scour and flow field around a spur dike in a 90° bend

Spur dike is an important element in river training that creates rapid variations in flow field, sediment transport and bed topography. The mechanism of flow and sediment transport in a channel bend is very complex, especially when a spur dike is constructed in a bend. Most of previous investigations on flow behavior and scour around spur dike were carried out in straight channels. In this paper results of experiments on flow field and scour around a spur dike in a 90 degree channel bend are presented. Sand with uniform grain size was used as the bed material. Experiments were conducted for different locations and different lengths of spur dikes at the bend with different values of discharge. The three dimensional flow fields around a spur dike were investigated. The maximum depth of scour was correlated to the Froude numbers, lengths and the locations of spur dike in the bend.