Jurnal

Infrastruktur dan Lingkungan Binaan

Infrastructure and Built Environment Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008

Preliminary Study on Scouring at Parallel River Crossing Pipelines

Joko Nugroho1), Dhemi Harlan1), and Hendra Achiari2)

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews previous research conclusion on submarine single pipeline or river crossing pipeline. Preliminary
data was obtained from experiments on single and parallel pipelines. Experiments on counter measure for scour
around river crossing pipeline were done as well. The experiments were done by applying time-varied discharge,
similar to a hydrograph discharge sequence magnitude. The experiments were done using noncohessive sediment
under codition of clear water scour. The results showed that maximum scour for single pipeline were observed for
pipeline placed at a distance of half and one time of the pipe diameter from the bed. Protection by placing weir at the
downstream of pipeline provide significant result.

Key words: scour, river crossing pipeline, river bed, scour protection.

I. INTRODUCTION This condition will impose additional force to the pipe,

i.e. drag force due to the flow and probably, debris flow.
Pipe line has been used in transporting water, oil and
This paper presents experimental results on scouring at
minerals (in the form of slurry). It is often that the pipe
submerged pipe line which placed across a laboratory
line must be lied across the river bed and even
flume. The experiments aimed to: provide better
lied/burried below the seabed. Due to the dynamic
understanding on scouring mechanism around pipe line
condition of flow and sediment at coastal, ocean and
subjected to time-varied discharge in single river
river environment it is possible that the pipe will be
crossing pipeline and parallel river crossing pipeline,
exposed to the flow. The exposure of the pipe line to
and study the effective counter measure for parallel
the flow could cause damaged to the pipe, due to the
river crossing pipeline. There are three kind of
abrassion of the sediment transported by the flow,
experiments, i.e. single pipe experiments, experiments
especially in the high flow condition. It is also possible
on scouring protection, and scouring at parallel
that along the river there will be more than one pipe line
pipelines.
crossing in parallel, hence several pipe lines lied in a
close distance crossing the river. This paper aimed to presents the scouring mechanism at
river crossing pipeline and the possible countermeasures.
In the beginning of the pipe line placing, the pipe
usually placed well below the river bed. In this Chiew (1990) studied the mechanism of scouring
condition, there is no effect on flow to the pipe and its around submarine pipelines. He concluded that the
surrounding, and the pipeline is safe. However, due to initiation of piping is caused by the piping mechanism.
the dynamic of the river and sediment transport The piping is due to the difference of pressure at the
condition, a degradation of the river bed level will upstream and downstream of the pipe. The onset of
caused the pipe being uncovered and finally exposed to scour will not be occurred for the ratio of flow depth to
the flow. The protrution of the pipe above the bed level the pipe diameter less than 3.5 and the pipe is just
will lead to the formation of vortex shedding with has embedded at the sea bed. For the half burried pipe the
transversal axis, at the downstream of the pipe. The piping was not observed as well. He concluded that the
pressure gradient between the upstream and the maximum scour depth was observed for case that
downstream of the pipe will cause piping below the caused by unidirectional flow in clear water scour
pipe. These two mechanism will cause the sediment condition.
particles around the pipe being removed and finally the
pipe will be unsupported any more by the bed level.
1)
Research Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut
Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, e-mail: joko@si.itb.ac.id; and dhemi@si.itb.ac.id
2)
Research Division of Ocean Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Institut Teknologi
Bandung, Indonesia, e-mail: h_achiari@ocean.itb.ac.id

Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Demi Harlan 89

 Jurnal
Infrastruktur dan Lingkungan Binaan
Infrastructure and Built Environment
Chiew (1991) proposed a formulation of scour around
submarine pipelines. The parameter involved in his
formulation are flow depth ratio, gap ratio and critical
shear stress for representative sediment. His formulation
needs iteration in finding the maximum scour depth.
His prediction is in the range of ± 20% agreement
compared to the experimental data.
Moncada-M and Aguiere-Pe (1999) presented the results
of experiments on the rivercrossing pipelines placed on
top of river bed and at several distance from the bed.
They concluded that Froude was negligible in the scour
process but it ismportant in defining the parameter in
the definition of the scour process.
It is clear that scour around submarine pipeline and river
crossing pipeline has been gone through a detailed
studies and researches, however there is not much study
in the river crossing pipelines which is placed in
parallel.
Y2
e s
L
Figure 1
Experimental setup
Figure 2
Pipeline is represented by a cylinder placed accross the glasswalled flume
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Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008
II. EXPERIMENT SETUP
Experiments were conducted at Water Recources
Laboratory, Faculty of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).
Equipment and material used in the study are:
a. Glass walled open channel of 50 cm wide, and 7 m
long.
b. Water circulation system
c. Pipe of 38.1 mm diameter
d. Sand, d50 = 0.6 mm
The flow was measured by a Rehbock weir placed at the
upstream of the flume. The setup of the experiments is
presented in Figure 1 and Figure 2. The determined
parameters are flow depth (Y1 and Y2), pipe position
relatif to the initial sediment bed level (e). The observed
parameter is scour depth and scour length.
Y1
Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Dhemi Harlan
 Jurnal
Infrastruktur dan Lingkungan Binaan
Infrastructure and Built Environment Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008

The discharge can be calculated using Rehbock formula the flow is in the range of 0.11 – 0.17, hence the flow is
(Chadwick and Morfet, 1994): subcritical. The scouring observed will be in the type of
 h  clear water scour as the mean flow velocity applied at
2 g  0.602 + 0.083 1 b(h1 + 0.0012) m /s
2
Q=
3/ 2 3
the upstream is below the critical velocity of sediment
3  Ps  movement. The critical velocity of the sediment
h1 = flow depth at the upstream of the weir, measured movement in this experiment is in the range of 24 to 27
above the crest. cm/s.
Ps = height of crest
b = width of the crest
g = gravitational acceleration. III. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS

The above equation is valid for: 3.1 Basic Experiments

30 mm < h1 < 750 mm, b > 300 mm, Ps > 100 mm, and
h1 < Ps. The basic experiments consists of three experiments
i.e., for e/D = 0, 0.5 and 1.0. The data is presented in
1. Sediment Properties Table 1 to Table 3. The relative scour depths and
The grainsize of the sand material used in the relative scour length are presented in Figure 4 and
experiment is shown in Figure 3. The sand used in the Figure 5.
experiments has d50 of 0.6mm.
Table 1
Scour depth and flow condition of basic experiment for
e/D = 0
Time interval Y1 S L V1 Fr
x 10 min cm cm cm cm/s -
1 3.29 2.0 11.9 16.8 0.11
2 4.30 2.8 14.0 17.7 0.12
3 5.42 2.9 15.0 27.9 0.18
4 3.94 2.9 16.0 19.4 0.13
5 3.13 2.9 16.0 17.7 0.12
Note: V: velocity, Fr: Froude Number
Table 2
Scour depth and flow condition of basic experiment for
e/D = 0.5
Time interval Y1 S L V1 Fr
x 10 min cm cm cm cm/s -
1 3.55 0.5 10.0 15.6 0.10
2 4.28 1.4 13.0 17.8 0.12
Figure 3
Grainsize of the sediment 3 5.90 2.8 22.0 25.7 0.16
4 4.85 2.8 22.0 15.7 0.10
5 3.34 2.8 22.0 16.6 0.11
2. Scenarios of the experiment
Table 3
The experiments were grouped into three stages, i.e: Scour depth and flow condition of basic experiment for
a. Basic experiments e/D = 1.0
b. Pipe protection structure model experiments Time interval Y1 S L V1 Fr
c. Scouring around parallel river crossing pipe x 10 min cm cm cm cm/s -
For each experiments the flow were applied for 50 1 3.45 0.0 0.00 16.1 0.11
minutes with a change in every 10 minutes time 2 3.95 0.0 0.00 19.3 0.13
interval. This is to immitate a sequence of a hydrograph 3 5.59 0.8 16.0 27.1 0.17
which has rising and reccession limb features.The 4 3.97 0.8 15.0 19.2 0.13
applied discharge to the system is in the range of 3 to 8 5 3.30 0.8 15.0 16.8 0.11
l/s, and the range of the upstream flow velocity is in the
range of 15 to 27 cm/s. The range of Froude number of
Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Demi Harlan 91
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Infrastructure and Built Environment Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008

3.2 Pipe Protection Structure Model Experiments

Pipeline will be safe if it is unexposed to the flow.

However it is likely that a pipe will be exposed due to
flow and river bed dynamic. Degradation of river bed
due to to general scour will affect along the river reach,
hence local scour countermeasure will be less effective.
From the scour mechanism observation it can be seen
that the pipe which has a distance to the bed the flow
effect is prominent. Hence the scour could be avoided
by changing the flow condition around the pipe. A scour
counter measure structure which could promote a back
water profile will help to increase flow depth, slow
down the flow velocity, and promote sedimentation and
Figure 4 eventually there will be no scouring.
Graph of S/D vs time interval for scenario 1 In this experiments two pipes placed parallel, namely
upstream and downstream pipe. Two experiments were
done by covering the upstream pipe, and one experiment
done with the downstream pipe covered. The data for
first two experiments is presented in Table 4 and Table
5, respectively. Figure 6 shows relative scour depths at
a pipeline placed at the downstream of a weir, the scour
depth for e=-D is deeper than for e=-0.5D burried pipe.
This is because the scouring is limited by the presence /
exposure of the pipe. The scouring is retarded after the
pipe is uncovered. The result of placing a cover on the
downstream pipe showed that the scour at the upstream
pipe is reduced due to the presence of backwater caused
by the downstream weir.

Table 4
Figure 5 Scour depth at the downstream pipe and flow
Graph of L/D vs time interval for scenario 1 condition when upstream pipe is covered, e=-D.
Time interval Y1 S L V1 Fr
The maximum scour achieved after the maximum flow x 10 min cm cm cm cm/s -
velocity applied. The depth was maximum when the 1 4.01 1.0 10.0 0.1 0.22
pipe is placed right above the bed level. The scour of 2 7.51 1.3 17.0 0.1 0.12
depth was minimum for pipe placed at a distance of 1 3 8.90 3.0 20.8 0.2 0.18
pipe diameter. 4 7.12 2.8 24.5 0.1 0.13
5 7.02 2.5 24.5 0.1 0.09
For the pipe half burried at the bed, the initial scour was
occurred at the bed downstream of the pipe. The sand
removal then propagated towards upstream, which
finally provide the way below the pipe for a portion of Table 5
the flow to pass. The shear stress caused by the flow Scour depth at the downstream pipe and flow
passing under the pipe will remove the sand particles condition, when upstream pipe is covered, e=-0.5D.
until the shear stress magnitude is less than the critical Time interval Y1 S L V1 Fr
shear stress for related bed material. For the pipe which x 10 min cm cm cm cm/s -
placed at a distance from the bed the scour is mainly 1 7.56 1.0 17.0 0.07 0.08
due to the increasing of the shear stress caused by pipe 2 8.00 1.3 42.5 0.10 0.11
obstruction. 3 9.31 1.0 36.0 0.20 0.17
4 7.83 1.0 45.0 0.10 0.11
5 7.40 1.0 46.0 0.10 0.09

92 Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Dhemi Harlan

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Infrastruktur dan Lingkungan Binaan
Infrastructure and Built Environment Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008

Figure 6
Graph of S/D vs time interval for experiment pipe line placed
at the downstream of a weir

3.3 Scouring Around Parallel River Crossing Pipes
In this experiment three pipe were place in a parallel
configuration. This experiment aimed to study the
method in preventing scour below the pipe if there are
more than one pipe placed parallel. The result,
quantitatively, shows that after the pipes exposed, it
caused retardation on the flow, and it will cause
degradation after the last downstream pipe.
IV. EXAMPLE OF FIELD CASE
In this paper the authors present a real example of river
crossing pipeline more than one pipe or parallel river
crossing pipe lines. The map of situation is presented in
Figure 7. In this example there are seven pipes,
consisting all old and new installation, placed parallel
along a distance of 100 m or at interval of 16 m between
two pipes. The field condition is likely more complex
compared to our laboratory experiments. Pipe line for
inland transport usually placed along access road, hence
the crossing will be close to the bridge. In this case there
is problem of local scouring at the downstream of the
pipe and bridge. This is probably due to the presence of
the exposed pipe which cause backwater at the upstream
and accelerated flow at the downstream part.
As the result, a local degradation is occurred (see
downstream part of the last pipe at Figure 7). The
lowest bed elevation at the degraded part is up to 5
meters compared to the bed elevation at the last pipe.
According to our laboratory experiments, weir
construction at the downstream of the last pipe and
providing a proper energy dissipater would help the
situation. However the backwater effect should be
analyzed to provide parameter in designing the elevation
Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Demi Harlan
of river embankment. An example of a condition of
flow over an exposed river crossing pipeline is
presented in Figure 8.
V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The results showed that maximum scour for single
pipeline were observed for pipeline placed at a distance
of half and one time of the pipe diameter from the bed.
Protection by placing weir at the downstream of
pipeline provide significant result in reducing the scour
depth.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to
the Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering,
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering in
providing the experiments area and apparatus.
References
Chadwick, A., Morfett J. 1994, Hydraulics in Civil and
Environmental Engineering, 2nd ed., E & FN
Spoon.
Moncada-M,A., Aguiere-Pe, J. 1999, “Scour below
Pipeline in River Crossings.” J. Hydr. Engrg.,
ASCE, 125(9), 953-958.
Chiew, Y.M., 1990, ‘‘Mechanics of local scour around
submarine pipelines.’’ J. Hydr. Engrg., ASCE,
116(4), 515–529.
Chiew, Y.M., 1991, ‘‘Prediction of maximum scour
depth at submarine pipelines’’. J. Hydr. Engrg.,
ASCE, 117(4), 452–466.
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Infrastructure and Built Environment Vol. IV No. 1, June 2008

Figure 7
Example of placement of river crossing pipe lines in parallel

Figure 8
Flow over an exposed pipeline

94 Joko Nugroho, Hendra Achiari, and Demi Harlan