Effects of Bridge Piers on Flood Hazards: A Case Study on the Jialing River in China

Abstract

Bridge piers on river channels can cause obstacles for flood flow by reducing the cross-sectional area and inducing local eddy currents and high flow velocities, which may destroy hydraulic structures. A two-dimensional numerical model was used to investigate the effects of bridge piers on river flood hazards in the Jialing River, China. For the modeling, Mike 21 FM was used, which is an unstructured mesh and finite volume model that solves the shallow water equations. The numerical model was validated with collected historical flood traces, and sensitivity analyses identified the effects of the Manning coefficient and the dependence on the grid size. The influence of backwater effects on the flow field was analyzed by comparing numerical results with and without piers. The results showed that the most significant impacts were caused by the Fengxian Bridge. The maximum water level rise was about 1 m and the maximum velocity near this bridge decreased by 22.77% for a 10-year flood. We found that the top elevations of planned levees near the bridges must be increased by 0.15–0.36 m. The influence of bridge piers on the flood velocity field is more complex. These findings will help flood hazard management in this river and provides a reference for similar projects.