The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) was asked to evaluate hands-free mooring (HFM) as an option for improving the safety and efficiency of lock operations at USACE locks within the United States. The focus of this research is assessing HFM solutions for barge tows on USACE inland waterway locks. This Coastal and Hydraulics engineering technical note (CHETN) describes the approach and findings from Phase I of this HFM research effort, which was funded through the Navigation Systems Research Program. Phase I includes defining the problem this research effort intends to address, understanding current mooring practices at USACE locks, gathering information on similar systems already in use, and developing design concepts and criteria.
A scour hole has developed in Isle of Wight Bay near Ocean City, MD. This hole could grow to the point that nearby land developments are threatened, so channel-bed protection measures may be implemented near this scour hole. Appropriately designing those bed protection measures requires knowledge of the flow behavior in the scour hole, so a three-dimensional model study has been conducted to determine the flow behavior at the extreme flood and ebb tides present during a pre-selected month of tide cycles. Steady-state simulations of the flows during those two tide conditions have been completed. Contour plots of the flow velocity near the bed and the corresponding bed shear stresses are provided as input for the design of the bed protection measures.
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