Local scour of bridge piers is one of the main threats responsible for bridge damage. Adopting scour countermeasures to protect bridge foundations from scour has become an important issue for the design and maintenance of bridges located in erodible sediment beds. This paper focuses on the protective effect of one active countermeasure named an “anti-scour collar” on local scour around the commonly used cylindrical bridge pier. A cylindrical pier model was set up in a current flume. River sand with a median particle size of 0.324 mm was selected and used as the sediment in the basin. A live-bed scour experimental program was carried out to study the protective effect of an anti-scour collar by comparing the local scour at a cylindrical bridge pier model with and without collar. The effects of three design parameters including collar installation height, collar external diameter and collar protection range, on the scour depth and scour development were investigated parametrically. According to the experimental results, it can be concluded that: the application of an anti-scour collar alleviates the local scour at the pier effectively; and the protection effect decreases with an increase in the collar installation height, but increases with an increase in the collar external diameter and the protection range. Design suggestions for improving the scour protective effect of the anti-scour collar are summarized and of great practical guiding significance to the development of anti-scour collars for bridge piers.

Pile foundations for offshore wind turbines are subjected to large lateral loads. By mounting wings on the perimeter of regular monopiles, winged monopiles have shown better performance in resisting deformation under horizontal loading. However, the hazardous effect of local scour on the lateral bearing capacity of winged monopiles installed in the sandy seabed has not been systematically evaluated. In this study, a modified Mohr–Coulomb model considering the pre-peak hardening and post-peak softening behavior of dense sand is adopted to simulate laterally loaded winged monopiles in the locally scoured sandy seabed, using three-dimensional finite element analyses. The effect of local scour depth on the lateral capacity of winged monopiles is examined and explained by soil failure mechanisms. The enhancement of lateral capacity with wings attached to the monopile is demonstrated to be more effective than extending pile embedment length. The effects of the relative density of sand and the wing load orientation are also discussed. Finally, the wing efficiency is evaluated to determine the optimal configuration of winged monopiles.