Scour monitoring of underwater foundations using abrupt changes in cooling rate
摘要
Based on the abrupt change characteristics of the convective heat transfer coefficient on the underwater foundation surface above and below the riverbed, a temperature tracing method for scour monitoring around underwater bridge foundations was presented. An innovative multi-point thermal excitation monitoring system was developed. Through systematic experiments, the effects of tube offset distance, flow velocity and location of monitoring point on the thermal response of a point heat source were investigated. The results indicate that the thermal response characteristic parameter, which reflects the cooling rate, exhibits an S-shaped distribution pattern near the riverbed surface. The inflection point of this S-shaped function can be used to determine the elevation of the riverbed.