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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #292684
Title: Dust transport and abrasion assessment within simulated standing vegetation

Author
item GONZALES, HOWELL - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY
item CASADA, MARK
item HAGEN, LAWRENCE - RETIRED ARS EMPLOYEE
item TATARKO, JOHN
item MAGHIRANG, RONALDO - KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/11/2013
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Crop residues are useful in protecting the top soil from depletion and abrasion due to wind erosion. A wind tunnel study was done to measure sand transport and abrasion energies within the simulated artificial standing vegetation. Wind profiles, relative abrasion energies and rates of sand discharge were evaluated at two different heights (150 mm and 220 mm) for each of the three geometrical configurations of the artificial standing vegetation - (4 in x 8 in, 8 in x 8 in and 12 in x 8 in) - from the most dense to the least dense. The test runs were 3-minutes. It was found that, as expected, threshold velocity was directly proportional to density of standing vegetation while inversely proportional to sand discharge. The most dense configuration which was predicted to provide greatest sheltering showed that it increased the threshold tunnel velocity of the bare sand from 5.9 m s-1 to 10 m s-1. Abrasion losses were high for wind speeds more than 1 ms-1 above the threshold limit for each configuration. For wind speeds up to approximately 0.3 m s-1 above threshold, the horizontal abrasion plates sensors showed greater abrasion (greater depletion of sand) experienced at the surface than at the level of the artificial standing vegetation (> 2.0 cm above the sand surface).