SBIR-STTR Award

The hydrodynamics and flow-structure interaction associated with scouring around bridge piers is a complex and challenging problem for highway engineers. The hydraulic laboratory model study is a practical and rational way to better understand the complex phenomena and to help solving the design problem in connection with scouring. The main objective of Phase I work is to design and fabricate a small non-intrusive acoustic echo-ranging probe for measuring bed elevations of hydraulic model experiments now being conducted in the FHWA hydraulic laboratory, computer techniques software for data acquisition and processing will be developed for the proposed acoustic system. Test and evaluation of the acoustic system will also be conducted. The Phase I work will provide a good foundation for further integration of the system into a highly reliable and accurate laboratory profiling/contouring instrument with special applications to FHWA needs. The technique may be further extended to field measurement work in the future.