Problems of river bank and in-stream erosion are very common in most of the rivers in India and abroad.

Various attempts have been made to overcome excessive erosion by constructing river training works.
Porcupine systems are one of the novel techniques which have been adopted as a cost-effective method
of river training. In this paper, the effect of porcupines on the velocity of flow and their ability to capture
sediment has been investigated experimentally. Also, an attempt has been made to logically study the
pattern of deposition caused by various configurations of Porcupine field layout and hence to propose a
preliminary design methodology. Results show that there is a considerable reduction in the flow velocity
resulting in the deposition of sediment with porcupines offering resistance to flow.

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 ... It is reported that the porcupines were very effective and helped in siltation of the
bank. Aamir and Sharma (2015) have developed a rational design methodology for
riverbank protection using RCC Porcupines. ...
Efficiency of triangular and prismatic Porcupines in capturing sediment for river training
Conference Paper
Full-text available

o Dec 2015
o International Conference on Hydraulics, Water Resources, Coastal and Environmental
Engineering
o

Mohammad Aamir
o

Nayan Sharma

ViewShow abstract

 Reply to the ‘Discussion by S.K. Mazumder on “Riverbank protection with Porcupine

systems: development of rational design methodology” by M. Aamir and N. Sharma (2015)’

Riverbank protection with Porcupine systems: development of rational design methodologyMohammad

Aamira*and Nayan SharmabaDepartment of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
Roorkee, India;bDepartment of Water ResourcesDevelopment & Management, Indian Institute of
Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India(Received 3 May 2014; accepted 11 March 2015)Problems of river
bank and in-stream erosion are very common in most of the rivers in India and abroad. Variousattempts
have been made to overcome excessive erosion by constructing river training works. Porcupine systems
areone of the novel techniques which have been adopted as a cost-effective method of river training. In
this paper, theeffect of porcupines on the velocity of flow and their ability to capture sediment has been
investigated experimentally.Also, an attempt has been made to logically study the pattern of deposition
caused by various configurations ofPorcupine field layout and hence to propose a preliminary design
methodology. Results show that there is a consider-able reduction in the flow velocity resulting in the
deposition of sediment with porcupines offering resistance to flow.Keywords: Porcupine systems; river
training; cost-effective; design methodology; riverbank protection1. IntroductionMost of the rivers have
meandering behavior and rarely does a river follow a straight path. Due to excessive meanderingand
hence erosion in the outer bank, some rivers tend to shift their course while others tend to follow a
completely newpath. Various measures have been taken to control river bank and in-stream erosion by
constructing river training workssuch as submerged vanes, bank pitching, spurs, groynes, guide vanes,
etc. Due to rising cost of these conventional rivertraining works, developing countries like India have
been adopting economic measures of river training. Permeable struc-tures tend to be the least
expensive to construct (Shang et al. 2013). Bandalling, board fencing, jack-jetty systems andtetrahedral
frames are some of these cost-effective methods used for river training (Nakagawa et al. 2011; Rahman
et al.2003,2011; Zhang et al. 2010). Porcupine Systems have also been deployed in big rivers in India like
Brahmaputra andGanga with fairly good results. Brahmaputra is the largest river in the Indian
subcontinent which has a dynamic behaviorof its channel pattern (Akhtar et al. 2011). In 2005–2006 a
porcupine screen, about 1 km long, was laid at Bonkual atupstream of the Kaziranga, India. This screen
was made of 3 m porcupines in three numbers of staggering rows from theconcerned Brahmaputra
embankment to the nearest sand bar. This screen was one of the initial works and it totally stoppedthe
chronic and severe erosion problem of the reach, saved the site and is functioning extremely well in
holding porcu-pine-generated bed level at that location till date (Sarma and Acharjee 2012). RCC
Porcupines have also been deployed atMajuli Island, Assam, India and they have been found quite
effective in reducing the intensity of the river Brahmaputra(Kharya and Kumar 2012). Figure 1shows
prominent deposition of sediment around porcupines at Dhola Hatighuli in theriver Brahmaputra after
one flood season. However, till today there is hardly any systematic research and developmentdone on
Porcupine systems and these are mostly being used based on experience only.A Porcupine is a unit of
the system which comprises six members of RCC which are joined together with the help ofiron nuts and
bolts to form a tetrahedral frame. Each member is 2–4 m in length, depending upon the requirements.
At thetime of concreting of members, holes are kept in the RCC poles for the bolts. Generally, RCC poles
of 3 m length are usedhaving a cross section of 15 cm × 15 cm (Kakran and Keshri 2012). Reinforcement
is given using 4 Nos. of MS bars of6 mm diameter, with stirrups at 15 cm c/c. Larger porcupines may also
be used with greater cross section and heavier rein-forcement as per the requirements. Bolts are
normally 12–15 mm diameter. Check nuts are to be provided for better grip.Washers are required at
both ends for better grip with the RCC members. RCC porcupines should be connected togetherby wire
rope and properly placed on the ground to avoid any disturbance caused by the intensity of flow. Figure
2showsa three dimensional sketch of a typical RCC Porcupine unit.The basic principle of porcupine
protecting river bank is the decelerating effect of member bars (Yu et al. 2011), whichoffer resistance to
flow and hence cause reduction in velocity. Lu et al. (2011) investigated the turbulence characteristics
offlows passing through a porcupine and observed that it reduces the probability of sediment
entrainment by retarding theflow and reducing the boundary shear stress. In addition, it may induce
sediment deposition in a sediment laden flow bychanging the flow direction and increasing the energy
dissipation. Zhu et al. (2009,2011) carried out studies on threedimensional numerical hydrodynamic
models of porcupines based on computational fluid dynamics. In addition toproviding riverbank
protection, porcupines can also be used for protection of bridge piers against scouring (Tang et al.2009)
and preventing root-stones loss (Shi et al. 2011)Riverbank protection with Porcupine systems:
development of rational design methodologyMohammad Aamira*and Nayan SharmabaDepartment of
Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India;bDepartment of Water
ResourcesDevelopment & Management, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee,
India(Received 3 May 2014; accepted 11 March 2015)Problems of river bank and in-stream erosion are
very common in most of the rivers in India and abroad. Variousattempts have been made to overcome
excessive erosion by constructing river training works. Porcupine systems areone of the novel
techniques which have been adopted as a cost-effective method of river training. In this paper, theeffect
of porcupines on the velocity of flow and their ability to capture sediment has been investigated
experimentally.Also, an attempt has been made to logically study the pattern of deposition caused by
various configurations ofPorcupine field layout and hence to propose a preliminary design methodology.
Results show that there is a consider-able reduction in the flow velocity resulting in the deposition of
sediment with porcupines offering resistance to flow.Keywords: Porcupine systems; river training; cost-
effective; design methodology; riverbank protectio
The experimental flume had a graduated scale on its side walls having a least count of 0.01 m. These
graduationshelped in placing the models in the exact position inside the flume and also in taking velocity
readings at intended points.Tail gate was used at the downstream end of the flume to control the depth
of flow inside the flume.2.2. Experimental procedureThe experiments for the present study were
performed in two phases, namely Phase 1 and Phase 2. In the first phase ofexperiments, the effect of
porcupines on the fluvial parameters was studied. In the second phase of study, the effect of vari-ous
layout combinations of porcupines on the sediment laden flow of water was investigated to come up
with the optimumlayout combination of porcupine field to meet with the required objective of erosion
control, moderate reclaim or highreclaim.Phase 1 experiments were performed with different number
of porcupines placed in a row to study their effect on thevelocity of flow. Water depth was also varied to
study the effect of submergence level on the fluvial behavior of porcu-pines. Phase 2 experiments were
performed with different combinations of length and number of retards. The effect ofvarious
combinations of porcupines on the sediment laden flow of water was investigated. The optimum
layoutcombination of porcupine field was obtained to meet with the required objective of erosion
control, moderate reclaim orhigh reclaim.2.2.1. Phase 1 experimentsUniform flow conditions were
ensured before the start of experiments, with the help of boundary layer development. Theexperiments
were conducted for incipient motion condition keeping the average bed shear stress just below the
criticalshear stress by fixing the Shields’parameter to 0.045 as per Yalin–Karahan (Pope et al. 2006;
Shields 1936; Yalin andKarahan 1979). Clear water condition was maintained for the present study by
maintaining the average bed shear stressless than the critical shear stress to avoid movement of bed.
Average bed shear stress (τ) and critical shear stress (τc) aregiven by Equations (2) and (3)
respectively.s¼cfRS (2)sc¼sci ðcs cfÞ d(3)where, τci–dimensionless critical shear stress; γs–unit
weight of sand; γf–unit weight of water; R–hydraulic meandepth; S–water surface slope; and d–mean
diameter of sediment particles.Incipient motion condition was achieved by fixing the bed slope in such a
way that the average bed shear stressremains less than the critical shear stress taking into consideration
the Shields’parameter as indicated earlier.Measured quantity of discharge was allowed to flow into the
flume and the water level inside the flume was maintainedby controlling the tail gate at the downstream
end of the flume. Flow depth was measured with point gauge having leastcount of 0.1 mm and velocity
was measured with current meter having least count of 0.01 m/s. Velocity readings insidethe flume
were taken at different cross sections, first without the models, and then with the porcupine models.
Porcup