Research progress on scour at weir-like structures

Local scour depth at weir-like structures is one of the most important engineering design parameters, which significantly affects the stability and safety of the structure. In this paper, the 80 years' research progress on scour at weir-like structures is reviewed. The scour classifications at weirs and the corresponding scour mechanism are elaborated. The research progress on physical modelling, theoretical analysis and numerical modelling of scour at weir-like structures is introduced and discussed. The past research outputs are found mostly confined to clear-water scour at 2-D unsubmerged weirs and relied heavily on physical modelling techniques, while studies on live-bed scour at 3-D weirs, effects of rocky bed materials, coupling relationships of migrating bedforms and developing scour holes, numerical simulation of live-bed scour process, and etc. are limited. The potential research areas are also given in the last section of the paper.