Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40

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Geomorphology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geomorph

Experimental study on bank erosion and protection using submerged

vane placed at an optimum angle in a 180° laboratory channel bend
Litan Dey ⁎, Abdul Karim Barbhuiya, Piya Biswas
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam 788010, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Unsteadiness of the vertical velocity profile and secondary flow in open channel bends poses serious problems in
Received 22 July 2016 hydraulic engineering design. Insertion of vertical submerged vanes in the channel bend at an optimum angle
Received in revised form 16 January 2017 with the tangential component of flow can minimize the unsteadiness and generation of secondary flow
Accepted 16 January 2017
resulting in the reduction of scour depth at the outer bank. A series of experiments were conducted in a 180°
Available online 21 January 2017
bend laboratory channel to study flow erosion and effective ness of the submerged vane in reducing scour
Keywords:
depth. The average approach to flow velocity at 0.20 m flow depth above the lowest initial bed level was
Open channel flow 25 cm/s. An Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) was used to measure the three-dimensional time-averaged ve-
3D flow locity components at different azimuthal sections on stabilized nonscoured beds without vane. Scour bed profile
Scour without vanes shows that bank erosion in a 180° parabolic-shaped bed channel occurs mostly at the zone from
ADV bend angles 120° to 140°. Vanes were installed at angles of 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°, and 40° to the tangential flow com-
Submerged vane ponent maintaining a spacingof 75 cm distance from one vane to another. Experimental results show that a 15°
vane angle produces best result in reducing outer bank scour in a parabolic-shaped channel. The data presented
in this paper can also be used for validating three-dimensional turbulence models for simulating flows in a curved
channel.
© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Riverbed deformation, sandbar deposition, and river broadening ac-
companied with bank collapse in an alluvial river are triggered by the
interaction of flow and riverbed or bank in the form of sediment trans-
port (Zhang, 1989). Bank failures occurs throughout the entire fluvial
process and would keep developing following specific rules according
to corresponding river patterns (Nagata et al., 2000). To reduce erosion-
al forces and stream power for a given discharge without a coarse-
grained sediment supply for downstream aggradation, channel widen-
ing was the only mechanism for the silt bed streams to recover
(Simon, 1994). Simon and Hupp (1992) observed that mean erosion
rates are maximum on the outer banks of curved reaches, while along
the inside banks of a curved channel and in straight reaches erosion
rate is minimum. Secondary flow formation particularly at a bend is be-
lieved to be the main reason of erosion (Sin, 2010). Thomson (1876)
first reported the existence of spiral flow pattern in channel bends.
Mockmore (1944) conducted laboratory experiments to measure longi-
tudinal velocity profiles in a 180° channel bend. He found that the flow
from inner wall to outer wall is more than the flow from outer wall to
inner wall. Yang (2005) studied the interaction of boundary shear
stress, velocity distribution and secondary flows in open channels to
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: litanwre@rediffmail.com (L. Dey).
justify the results using the governing equations of Reynolds stress dis-
tribution and boundary shear stress. Barbhuiya and Talukdar (2010) in-
vestigated three-dimensional turbulent flow fields and scour at a 90°
horizontal forced bend. They found that maximum scour depth at the
90° horizontal bend occurs around the 30° azimuthal section and max-
imum flow velocity was observed near the concave bank. Roca et al.
(2007) established that a properly installed wall footing minimises
bend scour and protects the outer bank. They found that bend scour
can be reduced by about 40% using wall footing. Scientific approaches
for erosion control in the river emphasized the use of RCC kellyner
jetties, submerged vanes, bank revetment or pitching, boulder spurs,
and RCC porcupines. In this paper, river bank protection using sub-
merged vane was experimented. Submerged vanes are a small hydrau-
lic structure, flat vertical in nature, which is placed in an eroding bank at
an angle α with the main stream flow to divert the flow, resulting in de-
position of sediments on the eroding bank. Erosion in the bend of a
stream significantly undermines the outer bank by the approach current
from the upstream of the river. Submerged vanes stabilize the deepen-
ing of the outer bank without affecting the sediment load and velocity at
other parts of the stream. Odgaard and Kenndy (1983) worked with
vanes to reduce near-bank velocity, to recover near bank depthsand to
determine vane angle α at which scour holes will be minimum. They
concluded, for α ≥ 20° flow separation occurred around submerged
vane length and generated scour holes near the upstream end of each
vane. Wang (1991) conducted laboratory experiments with submerged

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.01.022
0169-555X/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40
vanes installed in arrays with two or three vanes in each array for vane
angle of 15° in a curved flume. They also conducted laboratory experi-
ments with submerged vanes in arrays for α=20° in a straight channel.
Odgaard and Wang (1993) observed that in order to modify the flow
pattern and redistribute the sediment load, submerged vanes generated
secondary flow, which reduced the total circulation. Further, two closely
spaced vanes induced much more circulation than an isolated vane. The
generation of circular motion was dependent on the spacing of sub-
merged vanes. The greater the spacing, the smaller in reduction of circu-
lar motion and vice-versa. The efficiency of vanes in the presence of
neighboring vanes and their mutual distances was experimented by
Flokstra et al. (1998) and found that the efficiency is reduced by such
neighboring conditions. Marlius and Sinhe (1998) conducted laboratory
experiments to find the strength of secondary flow induced by sub-
merged vanes and was found maximum at α=40°. At larger vane an-
gles, the flow resistance is increased and the vane is subjected to a
relatively larger drag force. The main fact in the use of larger α has been
the occurrence of unexpected local scour. Indication of scour reduction
around a submerged vane has not yet been published, but many re-
searchers (Gupta et al., 2010) recommended a collar as a scour retarder
in case of bridge piers. Dey and Barbhuiya (2004) experiments on local
scour at short abutments to study the effects of different parameters
pertaining to scour at abutments. They observed that the scour depth at
an abutment with an armor-layer in clear-water scour condition under
limiting stability of the surface particles is always greater than that with-
out armor-layer for the same bed sediments. Flow behavior in different
channel bends has been studied earlier (Shukry, 1950; Odgaard and
Spoljaric, 1989; Blanckaert and Graf, 2001), which provided only one-
or two-dimensional mean velocity measurements. Recently, detailed
three-dimensional velocity measurement methods, such as the acoustic
doppler velocity profiler (ADVP) and the laser doppler anemometry
(LDA) were introduced to identify flow characteristics — such as second-
ary flow in open-channel bends (Blanckaert and Graf, 2001). Albayrak
and Lemmin (2011) conducted experiments to analyze dynamics of sec-
ondary current within the water column and at the free surface of an open
channel flow over a rough movable bed using combined detailed ADVP,
LSPIV, and hot-film measurements. They noticed undulations along the
tangential direction and strong shear stresses at the bottom of the
downwelling regions. Barbhuiya and Dey (2004) used ADV to measure
a 3D turbulent flow field at a vertical semicircular cylinder, attached to
the sidewall of a rectangular channel.
In the present study a velocimeter (ADV) is used to measure the 3D
velocity components at different vertical points of the channel sections.
The effectiveness of vanes in controlling outer bank erosion was tested
in the Hydraulics Engineering Laboratory of NIT, Silchar, India. The di-
mension of the experimental flume was 9.57 m upstream length, 3 m
downstream length and a 7.85 m 180° curve length, 0.8 m deep and
0.8 m wide. The centerline radius of the curved path of the channel
was 2.02 m. Tests were conducted with bed materials having nonunifor-
mity coefficient of 2.285. At the inlet section, a vertical steel screen with
approximate porosity of 0.7 covered the full cross section for damping
the flow disturbances through which water entered into the flume.
The schematic diagrams of the experimental setup, top view of the
flume, and test sections are shown in Fig. 1. An adjustable tailgate was
installed at the downstream end of the flume to control the flow
depth. The choice of the flume and location of the test section were cho-
sen in such a way that:
• The flow became fully developed before it reaches the test section.
• The width of the flume bend was wide enough to generate 3D flow.
For turbulent boundary layer thickness along smooth flat plates the
equation to verify the conditions of fully developed turbulent flow is
δ ¼ 0:37Ld ðULd =νÞ−0:2 ð1Þ
33
where δ = boundary layer thickness, and Ld = distance along the
streamwise direction. The calculated boundary layer thickness was
greater than the mean flow depth, which conveys that for the entire ex-
periment the boundary layer stretched out across the unseparated flow
depth. The water supply system was connected to the underground res-
ervoir to supply water to the laboratory flume. At the downstream end,
a sediment trap of 1.5 m length was constructed to collect the scoured
sediments. The main parameter for the vane test to reduce near bank
settlement was the mean flow depth. Depending on mean flow depth,
other parameters such as vane height, length of submerged vane,
vane-to-bank distance, and tangential spacing were considered. The ex-
perimental parameters were designed based on the design specifica-
tions given by Odgaard and Wang (1991a,b).
2. Laboratory model experiments
The channel bed was prepared by placing sand as bed material over
the entire length of the channel. Wet sieve analysis of a 500-g soil sam-
ple gives the value of the median size of bed particles (d50) and nonuni-
formity coefficient (σg) as 0.28 mm and 2.285 respectively. For all
experiments, sediment size was kept the same. The material was placed
covering the entire length of the flume. The sand was then leveled,
maintaining a 25-cm uniform thickness; then a trapezoidal cross sec-
tional channel was prepared. The side slope of the trapezoidal section
was made in such a way that the slope angle becomes almost equal to
the angle of repose of the bed sediments. Once the bed was prepared,
water was allowed to flow very slowly so that the side slope and the
bed attains a stable cross section. The bed was then stabilized and
kept for 2 days to enable flow measurement without change of bed pro-
file. Bed profiles were then measured at different azimuthal sections
along the radial distance from the inner wall with the help of a point
gauge. Water was again allowed to flow at a predetermined depth and
velocity by controlling the upstream and downstream gates. Three-di-
mensional time-averaged velocity components u, v, and w were then
obtained by using an acoustic doppler velocimeter (ADV). At each
cross section, velocity measurements were taken at six lateral positions
(5, 20, 35, 50, 65, and 75 cm from inner wall) and vertical positions in
the order of 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 15 cm etc. from the bed. The average ap-
proach velocity (U) calculated with the help of ADV was 25 cm/s. The
bed was again prepared as described above, and scour experiments
were conducted after measuring the initial bed profiles at different azi-
muthal sections. In order to avoid the undesirable scour, which other-
wise would happen by the action of sheet flow with inadequate flow
depth, the flume was first slowly filled with water at a low rate. After
that, the discharge was increased slowly to attain the required
predetermined depth and velocity of flow. To reach the dynamic equi-
librium of scour depth, the pump was allowed to run for about 8 h.
The pump was then stopped and water was allowed to drain out slowly,
and the scoured profile (Fig. 5A) was measured at different azimuthal
sections along the radial distance from the inner wall to the outer
wall. Notably, the time to reach dynamic equilibrium was assessed in
a trial experiment. The channel bed was prepared again and then sub-
merged vanes were placed on the bed. This experiment was repeated
by placing the vanes at 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°, and 40° with the tangential
component of the flow. Fig. 5B represents the bed profile after erosion
using 15° vane angle. The detailed calculation of the submerged vane
parameters is given in Table 1.
3. ADV data processing and performance
Filtering of ADV data involves two processes. The first process in-
cludes filtering of individual time series to remove low quality measure-
ments within the time series. The ADV signal correlation COR, SNR, and
despiking of aliased points (Wahl, 2000; Sontek Inc., 2001; Goring and
Nikora, 2002) are the main factors that help this process. The COR and
SNR filtering entails removing measured points within a time series
34 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

whose COR or SNR values are less than the user-set critical values, CORcr flow. After filtering the individual measurements within the time series,
and SNRcr. These critical values are usually set to CORcr = 70 and the second step in ADV data filtering focuses on the resulting time series
SNRcr = 15. Because the value of the COR parameter is a function of as a whole to ensure that the resulting time series, after filtering, has
the flow conditions, these parameters can be subjective to some extent enough data points to describe the mean and turbulent statistics accu-
(Wahl, 2000; Martin et al., 2002; Cea et al., 2007). Hence, a COR value rately. This can be checked by investigating the number of points
≤70 might not necessarily be indicative of a low quality point in need retained in a time series and by plotting the mean and turbulent statis-
of removal. This could be a natural outcome of sampling a higher energy tics to see if they reasonably follow expected trends. In our present ex-
periments, the value of COR was ≥90 and SNR was ≥30. The number of
points in the time series was sufficient to represent mean and turbu-
lence statistics.
Table 1
Submerged vane parameters.
4. Results and discussions
Vane parameters Design specification Vane dimensions
for present study
4.1. Velocity distributions at bends in a nonscoured bed
Average bankful depth: – 20 cm
Vane height: (0.2–0.4) × Avg bankful depth 7.5 cm
Vertical distribution of a normalized time-averaged tangential veloc-
Vane width: (2–3) × vane height 18.75 cm
Submerged vane angle: 13°–40° 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°, ity component, u ^ = u/U at different azimuthal sections before scour, are
and 40° presented in Fig. 2A. Upstream at the 0° section, we observed that the
Streamwise spacing: (10−30) × vane height 75 cm magnitude of velocity above the inner bank is little more than the ap-
Vane to bank distance: Should not exceed (4 × vane height) 15 cm proach velocity. At all other locations of this section, the magnitude of
No of vane arrays: Enough to cover entire 180° bend
velocity profile is almost the same as that of the approach velocity. At
 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40 35

the 30° section, the magnitude of velocity in the inner side of the chan-
nel becomes less than the approach velocity, but velocity increases close
to the bed of the outer slope. Above the outer bank of the 90° section, ve-
locity increases throughout the depth of the channel. Further, at the
110° section, velocity gradually increases starting from the toe of the
inner bank to the outer wall. The velocity profile at the 130° section
shows nonuniform distribution on the outer zone. Downstream at the
150° section, we found that the magnitude of velocity near the bed is lit-
tle more than the other sections. The maximum tangential velocity ob-
served at the bend in the present experiment is ≈ 1.10 times the
approach velocity. At the exit of the bend and also on the outer side,
the velocity is more than the approach velocity.
Fig. 2B shows the vertical distributions of the normalized time-aver-
aged radial velocity component, v^ ¼ v=U, at different azimuthal sec-
tions. Upstream at the 0° section, the magnitude of v is very small,
indicating continuation of unidirectional flow. However, on close exam-
ination of radial components, we found that a feeble radial flow toward
the inner bank on the upper part and away from the inner bank close to
the bed in the central portion exists. Between the 30° and 110° sections,
in general the flow is from the outer to inner bank near the bed and from
the inner to outer bank in the upper part indicating development of cir-
culation. However, very close to the bed of the inner toe, mild flow from
inner to outer was also observed. The magnitude of radial components
for the 130° section is from outer to inner covering almost two-thirds
of flow depth, but no radial flow was observed in the upper zone. At
the 150° section, the magnitude of cross-flow is reduced and was main-
ly confined close to the bed and near the outer bank.
The vertical distributions of normalized time-averaged vertical ve-
locity components, w ^ ¼ w=U; at different azimuthal sections are pre-
sented in Fig. 2C. In general, the magnitude of the vertical component
is negligible in the upper part of flow compared to approach flow veloc-
ity. We observed from the figure that for all sections, the small magni-
tude of the vertical component with upward flow close to the inner
sloping bed and downward flow close to the outer slope exists except
at the 0° section where the vertical component is negligible throughout
the depth.
From the velocity distribution diagrams of nonscoured bed without
protection, we observed that velocity attains its maximum value near

(A)
0.3 0.3
0° 30°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b
z/b

0 0

-0.1 -U 0 U -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
90° 110°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b

0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
130° 150°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b

0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

Fig. 2. Vertical distributions of normalized time-averaged velocity component along the (A) x-axis (û), (B) y-axis (v̂), and (C) z-axis (ŵ) at azimuthal sections Ө = 0°, Ө = 30°, Ө = 90°,
Ө = 110°, Ө = 130°, and Ө = 150°. Left and right side of the graph represent inner and outer bank respectively.
36 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40

(B)
0.3 0.3
0° 30°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

z/b
z/b

0 0

-0.1 -0.1
-U 0 U
-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
90° 110°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b
0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
130° 150°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b

0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

Fig. 2 (continued).

the outer bank at the downstream part of the bend. The magnitude of
tangential velocity increases near the outer bank and is reduced near
the inner bank in general. At the entry of the bend, at the 0° section,
the transition was smooth and no vortex developed. As the flow
moves downstream, between the 30° and 110° sections, there was a for-
mation of vortex flow covering almost the whole cross section that was
initiated by centrifugal force. However, at some locations near the toes
of the inner and outer banks, small local vortices were also observed.
The scour phenomenon at the bend can be explained with the help of
the observed flow pattern. As the centrifugal force is proportional to
the square of the velocity, more force is exerted on the upper layer at
the bend and causes a super elevated nature of water surface across
the section, with a higher level at the outer bank. This elevated water
surface induces additional gravity force resulting in the development
of a down flow component along the outer bank. The accelerated flow
along the outer bank in combination with downward flow along the
outer slope dislodges the materials, part of it is carried away down-
stream, and a small part is deposited on the inner sloping bank. Here,
in the present experiments, we tried to reduce the magnitude of the
tangential flow component acting on the bed near the toe zone of the
outer bank and also intercepted the cross-flow by placing submerged
vanes along the outer bank at different angles with the tangential flow
component.
4.2. Scour at bend and protection using a submerged vane
Submerged vanes were placed along the outer bank of the bend at
different vane angles with the tangential component of the flow to as-
sess its applicability as bank protection measure and to determine the
optimum angle in reducing outer bank erosion. The details of the exper-
imental results with vane angles 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°, and 40° are shown in
Fig. 3B–F respectively. Fig. 3A represents scour at different azimuthal
sections without a submerged vane. We observe from the figure that
maximum scour occurred between the 110° and 130° bend angles. Al-
most the same magnitude of scour was also noticed downstream of
the 130° section, which is mainly because of the accelerated flow
 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40 37

(C)
0.3 0.3
0° 30°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b
0 0

-0.1 -0.1
-U 0 U
-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
90° 110°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b
0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

0.3 0.3
130° 150°
0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1
z/b

z/b

0 0

-0.1 -0.1

-0.2 -0.2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
r/b r/b

Fig. 2 (continued).

developed near the exit of the bend. From Fig. 3B, we find that sub-
merged vanes placed at 10° resulted in the reduction of scour depth
along the outer bank from the 10° to 130° sections, while little more
erosion was found along the centre line of the same zone when com-
pared with the scour bed profile without vanes. There was very little ef-
fect on the scour profile near the exit of the bend. At the 15° vane angle,
there was improvement in the reduction of scour depth along the outer
bank compared to the 10° vane angle, particularly at the upper zone of
the bend as shown in Fig. 3C. However, there was a small increase in
scour depth near the centre of the 150° section. When submerged
vanes were placed at a 20° angle, scour depth was found to increase at
the outer bank of the bend starting from the 30° section to the 150° sec-
tion, but small recovery of the depth was noticed on the inner bank ex-
tending up to the centre of the channel between the 110° and 150°
sections. At the 130° and 150° cross sections, maximum scour was
found to occur near the outer wall (Fig. 3D). For a 30° vane angle,
some deposition occurred on the inner bank except near the entry and
exit of the bend (Fig. 3E). Flow area at the 10° section — increased by
erosion of the bed and in general magnitude of scour along the outer
bank — was little more than the previous experiments. The scour profile
as shown in Fig. 3F is the result of an increase in submerged vane angle
from 30° to 40°. We observed that in some places along the toe line of
the outer bank erosion is less compared to the 30° vane angle, but the
outer bank has eroded more than the 30° angle.
In this series of tests, a single array of vanes were installed at various
angles as described by the tangential flow component to determine the
best angle of the vanes, which provides maximum reduction of the
outer bank scour at bend. Scour reduction for each vane angle (Sr)
was calculated using the following equation:
 
Maximum scour depth with vane
Sr ¼ 1−  100% ð2Þ
Maximum scour depth without vane
From the plotted graph, percentage reduction vs. vane angles (Fig. 4)
clearly defines the significant effect of vane angle on scour reduction.
For vane angles of 10°, 15°, 20°, 30° and 40°, scour depth reduction
was found to be ≈9.7, 37.5, 27.8, 16.7, and −9.7% respectively.
38 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40

Fig. 4 clearly describes the effectiveness of submerged vane angles of scour depth is almost 37.5%, indicating improvement over the 10°
on scour reduction. The calculated scour depth reduction for a 10° vane angle. When the vane angle is further increased to 20°, scour
vane angle was ≈9.7%, which indicates that scour reduction using the depth is reduced to 27.6%. Performance of the submerged vane at 30°
10° vane angle was not very effective. At 15° vane angle, the reduction and 40° angles are also not satisfactory, resulting in the reduction of

A B
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
35 35
30 Original bed level 30 Original bed level
25 25
20 20
15 15
35
10 35
10
30 10° 30 10°
25 25
20 20
35
Scour depth, cm

30 30° 30°
30
25 25

Scour depth, cm
20 20
35 32
30 90° 30 90°
28
25 26
20 24
22
15 35
20
35 110° 110°
30
30
25
25
20
35
35 130° 130°
30 30
25 25
20 20
35
35 150° 150°
30 30
25 25
20 20
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
Channel width, cm Channel width, cm

C D
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
35 35
30 Original bed level 30 Original bed level
25 25
20 20
15 15
10
35 35
10
30 10° 30 10°
25 25
20
20
35
15 35
30 30° 30 30°
25 25
Scour depth, cm

Scour depth, cm

20 20
32 32
30 90° 30 90°
28 28
26 26
24 24
22 22
35
20 20
110° 35 110°
30 30
25 25
20
20
32
30 130° 35 130°
28 30
26
24 25
22 20
35
20 40
30
150° 35 150°
30
25 25
20
20 15
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
Channel width, cm Channel width, cm

Fig. 3. Scour bed profile at azimuthal sections Ө = 0°, Ө = 30°, Ө = 90°; Ө = 110°, Ө = 130°, and Ө = 150° for (A) without vane, (B) vane placed at an angle of attack 10°, (C) vane placed at
an angle of attack 50°, (D) vane placed at an angle of attack 20°, (E) vane placed at an angle of attack 30°, and (F) vane placed at an angle of attack 40°.
 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40 39

E F
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90
35 35
30 Original bed level 30 Original bed level
25 25
20 20
15 15
35
10 35
10
30 10° 30 10°
25 25
20 20
35 35
30 30° 30 30°
25 25
Scour depth, cm

Scour depth, cm
20 20
35 35
30 90° 30 90°
25 25
20 20
35 35
30 110° 30
110°
25 25
20
35 20
35
30 130° 30 130°
25 25
20 20
30 150° 30 150°
25 25
20 20
15
15
0 30 60 90 0 30 60 90

Channel width, cm Channel width, cm

Fig. 3 (continued).

scour depths equal to 16.7% and − 9.7% respectively. Vanes were de-
signed to generate local secondary flow, which reduces mean flow cir-
culating near the bed flow profile and redistributes the sediment load
within the channel cross section. When the vane angle is placed at
10°, development of local secondary flow was not very significant;
and the diversion of the accelerated tangential flow component away
from the outer bank was also not very effective, resulting in a minimum
affect on scour depth reduction. The reduction of scour depth may be
because of the interception of cross flow from outer to inner bank. As
vane angle is increased to 15°, in addition to interception of cross-flow
tangential flow in the lower layer was also partially diverted away
from the toe of the outer bank and the reduction of scour depth was
maximum. Scour was mainly attributable to accelerated flow passing
between vanes and the outer wall. With further increase of vane angles,
mainstream flow is obstructed, resulting in the reduction of flow area
and development of turbulence caused by separation of flow at the
9 main causes of bank erosion is the development of cross-flow at the
8
Maximum scour, in cm
leading edge around the vanes. Turbulence generated local scour
around the vanes. As the scour hole increases, the outer slope collapses;
and this process goes on causing even more scour at the 40° vane angle
compared to without a vane. Although, submerged vanes cannot pro-
tect the bend scour completely, it can protect toe erosion of the outer
bank, resulting in the prevention of subsequent bank slope collapse.
Thus, continuous advancement of the outer bank can be stopped by
using submerged vanes.
5. Conclusions
This paper presents experimental findings of flow and effectiveness
of submerged vanes in reducing outer bank scour at a 180° bend para-
bolic channel. In the first part, the 3D flow component was measured
to assess the cause of erosion at bends. In the second part, submerged
vanes were tested by being placed at different angles with the tangen-
tial flow component to find the optimum angle of its placement for re-
ducing outer bank scour. From the flow analysis, we found that the
bend in addition to accelerated flow along the outer bank caused by
centrifugal force. Placing of vanes with a very small angle with the tan-

7
gential component is not very effective in diverting the main stream
6 flow away from the toe of the outer bank; whereas vanes placed with
5 large angles cause obstruction and separation of flow resulting in the
4
development of a local scour hole, which leads to more erosion at the
bend.
3
The main conclusions of the present study are:
2
1 • The magnitude of maximum tangential component was found to be
0
≈1.1 times the approach flow velocity.
10 15 20 30 40 without vane • Maximum scour at the 180° bend was found to occur between 120°
Submerged vane angle, in degrees and 140° bend angles at the outer bank.
• Within the range of experimental data, the 15° vane angle produces
Fig. 4. Performance of submerged vane angles on scour reduction. the best results in reducing scour depth.
40 L. Dey et al. / Geomorphology 283 (2017) 32–40

Fig. 5. (A) Scour without vane, and (B) scour with vane at 15° vane angle.

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