Flooding and Its Effects on River Bridges in Western Black Sea Region

Abstract

Investigation of the events occurred in Turkey in which river bridges are severely damaged or collapsed showed that these events are usually experienced during flooding and most of the bridges collapsed due to the excessive scouring around bridge piers. Hence, besides loss of life and property directly caused by flooding, damages and failures of river bridges and similar losses caused by such destructions must be taken into account. Floods cause sudden and substantial increase in the water level and in the amount of flow of the rivers. As a result of these significant changes dynamic conditions in bridge opening might change, pressurized and weir flows might take place and scouring around piers and abutments might deepen. For all these reasons, floods have significant importance for river bridges and their effects should be taken into account and assessed. In recent years due to possible climate changes in Turkey as all over the World and changes in rainfall-runoff relationship variations in the intensity and frequency of floods are detected. As a result, river bridges might be under greater risk. To examine the aforementioned hydraulic effects and to develop a safety-inspection methodology for river bridges a research study is being carried out in Western Black Sea Region where floods and partial or complete failures of river bridges are frequently observed. In the scope of the current study the hydraulic effects on the river bridges are examined and their impacts on bridges are aimed to be taken into account and incorporated into a safety-inspection system. This paper informs the observations made during field trips of the current research. 

Keywords

• Bridge piers,floods,river bridges,scouring

References

1. A. M. Yanmaz, Köprü Hidroliği. Ankara, Türkiye:ODTÜ Yayıncılık, 2002a (in Turkish)