Flexible structures as a countermeasure to reduce local scour along longitudinal walls

The current study focused on investigating the effectiveness of a flexible structural approach for mitigating local scour along longitudinal walls in rivers with well-levelled granular beds. To carry out this study, a hydraulic channel was used as the experimental setup. The experiment aimed to evaluate the influence of several key parameters, including slope (ranging from 1 % to 2.5 %), flow rate (set at 0.017 m3/s and 0.030 m3/s) and width of the flexible structure (which was varied at 0.08, 0.12, and 0.15 m). The results of this study are remarkable and have important implications for river engineering and erosion control. The 0.15 m flexible system exhibited a remarkable ability to decrease scouring, especially under conditions of high flows and steeper slopes. In such scenarios, the flexible structure demonstrated efficiencies exceeding 80 %, signifying a substantial reduction in local scour. These findings are important because they suggest that the flexible structural approach can be an effective solution for mitigating scour in rivers with well-levelled granular beds.