Investigating Energy Reduction and Flow Dynamics Around Bridge Abutments with Eco-Friendly Materials

Bridge abutment is the most critical civil engineering infrastructure directly exposed to floodwater. Previous research focused on the bridge abutment scouring under diverse flow conditions with different types of countermeasures. To date, no study has been conducted to observe energy reduction and flow dynamics around bridge abutment. Therefore, the current research investigates energy reduction and flow dynamics around bridge abutments with eco-friendly materials (brick waste (BW) and marble waste (MW)) under subcritical flow conditions. Experiments were performed in a controlled laboratory setting to investigate different parameters such as water surface profile, energy reduction, reduction of fluid force index (RFI%), moment index (RMI%), and delay in floodwater arrival time. These parameters were investigated under different conditions including without waste (WW) and with eco-friendly materials. The result demonstrates that energy reduction increases by increasing the Froude number (Fr) from 0.13 to 0.22. Energy reduction increases up to 5.95%, 6.5%, and 6.27% in the case of WW, MW, and BW respectively. The use of MW resulted in maximum energy reduction where the average energy reduction reached 4.38%. The highest RFI% of 8.86% and RMI% of 12.44% were recorded with the use of MW during the experiments. The findings also show that a significant reduction in floodwater arrival occurred in the case of MW up to 68% compared to without abutment case in the channel. These findings provide valuable insights into flow characteristics and energy dissipation around bridge abutments, contributing to sustainable and resilient hydraulic infrastructure design.