Roca, M.Blanckaert, K.Martin-Vide, J. P.2010-11-302010-11-302010-11-30200910.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0000028https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/60323WOS:000265232400003River bank protection is a costly but essential component in river management. Outer banks in river bends are most vulnerable to scour and erosion. Previous laboratory experiments illustrated that a well-designed horizontal foundation of a vertical outer bank protruding into the cross section, called a footing, can reduce the scour depth and thereby protect the bank. This paper provides detailed experimental data in a reference experiment without footing and an experiment with footing carried out under similar hydraulic conditions, which suggest a delicate interaction between bed topography, downstream and cross-stream velocity, and to lesser extent turbulence. The presence of the outer bank footing modifies this delicate interaction and results in a more favorable configuration with respect to bank stability including: reduced maximum scour depth, more uniformly distributed downstream velocity, and weaker cross-stream circulation cells.Open-Channel BendsBed TopographyMean Flowtext::journal::journal article::research article