Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical

problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)

Introduction:
Case study of Chakri river narrow gauge railways bridge which has developed deep ravines
threatening the foundation of the structure and the connectivity of Pathankot and Kangra.
Earlier approach taken by Indian railways was building a concrete floor without piles which
failed as it is sure because of seepage of water. Locals says large scale illegal mining as the
cause of high scouring in river. But there seems number of other reasons also as the steep
slope of river, the high discharge it is carrying etc.

This problem was brought by Indian Railways to being get solved in a small budget
constraint to Prof DR. K.S. Hari Prasad Sir, Department of Civil Engineering. We were
engaged to learn by him under course of Practical Problem (CEN 300).
Objective:
To devise some simple engineering way to stop scouring and increase bed level so that the
foundation of bridge be safe.
Proposal:
Initial proposal was building a stone block structure near to bridge. This will cause
sedimentation to the bed near bridge. This approach was simple and easy in budget and
initial trials and experiments were being done on this structure in water lab. The future
targets were checking other types of structures also and seeing its efficacy in bringing the
desired sedimentation.
What We did and Thought to do in future? What We learnt and thought to learn in future?
 Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical
problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)
This problem correlates to sediment load and transport in water so first approach is to view
it from fundamental way in terms of threshold motion of sediment or incipient motion
condition. Seeing the nature of bed particles and their size composition, Shield approach
seems a nice way to view the reason behind instability of river bed structure and banks.
Shield entrainment method: He defined the critical tractive stress (τc) as that average shear
stress (τ0) at which the sediment particle just begins to move as we know

Where R is hydraulic mean depth and S is slope.

According to Shield , the particle begins to move when the drag force F 1 exerted by
the fluid on the particle, just equals or exceed the resistance developed F 2 offered by

Equality of above two expressions results to

where

Here Fs is Shield entrainment function. The plot of Fs vs particle Reynold number is

as follows:
Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical
problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)

From plot we can see that for diameter of particle greater than 6 mm F s value can be
taken 0.056 for coarse alluvium.

which results to

so here seems a clear relation between hydraulic mean depth, slope and channel and
diameter of the particle. Applying this to our case we can have a clear
vision why we have an unstable river structure there below bridge.
If we can opt for high budget expenditures or called extreme
engineering then we can have high level construction below bridge
strengthening the slope, area and wetted perimeter for the mean
Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical
problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)
type of bed particle found there in such a way so that even at the
peak discharge of river there is minimal incipient motion there.

Now returning to the practical approach of stone block structure.

Here the height of stone block needed is a function of the

amount/depth of sedimentation we want , the amount of energy
dissipation downstream so that there is no hydraulic jump and the
rise in level of water so that there is no flooding in surrounding area
even in cases of peak discharges or extreme discharges.

This method worked well as shown by DR. Hari Prasad Sir to us that it is doing
proper and required sedimentation. We thought of doing a more
mathematical and modelling study of this phenomenon. We thought
to have a data collection for different combination of discharges and
sediment load in the model channel designed for this purpose in the
lab.

The method for our study and data collection was as follows:
First, we need to develop a particular uniform flow discharge in channel. We opt for a
particular distance behind of bridge structure to drop sediment in channel. The
sediment was provided by KP Singh sir which were being used in the problem. As we
were already provided details of sediment like its mean diameter etc so we haven’t
opted for sediment size analysis and directly used it for our purpose. Before starting
the discharge, we levelled the whole bed giving a fix slope which was close to actual
slope of Chakri River at the bridge site. This slope design was already done in the
channel and we just only levelled the bed material in a uniform thickness all along
the channel and the took the bed depth readings around the bridge and stone block
structure. Then after starting discharge and when the flow was uniform, close to
stable, we again took bed depth readings. We weighed a particular amount of
sediment and dropped it uniformly across cross section of channel
and measured the time taken for it. We dropped the sediment in a
uniform fashion over a span of time.

This gave us the initial sediment load concentration= (Mass of

sediment taken/time taken to drop it)/(area of flow*average velocity
of flow)

Average velocity was taken as (V0.2+V0.8)/2 .

Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical
problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)
This gave us the initial concentration of sediment at the dropping point. Then at
spans of 5 minutes during a duration of 1 hour, we took water sample in a mug 0f 10
litre at different fixed distances upstream and downstream of bridge/stone block
structure. At other places other than dropping point of sediment initial concentration
was assumed zero. Then from collected sample sediment was filtered out and
weighed after being dried. From this mass we can calculate concentration at different
locations

Which is = dried sediment mass at that location/volume of

water (10 litre)

Now from this we have data of sediment concentration at different location with time
under a particular discharge and initial sediment load.

The second study was profile of depth of sedimented bed at some

fixed location upstream of stone block structure. These readings were
also taken at span of 5 min in a duration of 1hour. These readings were subtracted
from the initial bed depth at these locations taken after establishment of uniform
discharge. This set of data gave us rise in bed at different locations with time under a
particular discharge and initial sediment load.
This study should be done under different combinations of discharge and initial
sediment load. For a particular discharge, these type of readings for at least 10
different sediment loads. Similarly, such readings should be taken for different set of
discharges also which must include the peak intensity discharge of
Chakri river.

Our thought approach was developing machine learning models like

regression, SVM and some non linear models and checking their
efficacy.

The thought cases were:

1. A model of concentration of sediment load at different

locations with respect to the discharge and initial sediment
load. So, the independent variables in our study are discharge,
initial sediment load concentration, distance from stone block
structure and time. The dependent variable is concentration.
Other conditions to remain fixed.
2. A model of increase in bed depth profile with respect to time,
location, discharge and initial sediment load concentration.
Case Study: Chakri River bridge connecting Pathankot – Kangra(practical
problem/cen 300)
(Formation of deep ravines because of large scale scouring under the bridge as a
result threatening the bridge structure)
Saurav Raj (17113107), Nrapendra Singh Rana (17113080), Mohit Kumar
(17113068), Nazaf Ahzam (17113075)
3. Correlating the concentration at different places to the
sedimentation thickness at those places and finding a model
relation.

This study will give us these 3 different types of models and this can
be checked to estimate the sediment phenomenon there at real site
of Chakri river also (as we tried to imitate in our experiment most of
physical parameters) after building of stone block structure and
understanding after how much time we will have a proper depth of
bed to make safe the foundations of bridge etc. We can also have a
view of change in concentration of sediments after building of stone
block structure with time and location and we can also have a view
what should be the upstream concentration of sediment so that we
have a desired thickness increase of bed in a desired time. So, in
this way we can add up sediments upstream if needed for to get
result in a particular time. There initial sediment concentration of
model will be replaced by taking real site concentrations upstream
for applying model at that place.

This was the whole thought work but the work got terminated in between and we were
not able to obtain enough data to make machine learning models and even the data copy
(containing partial data) at present is not with me. If things will be fine in future and
time allows and if Sir’s guidance allows (regarding correctness/need of work) then I
will try to complete it under his guidance.