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Spatial characteristics of wind-sand flow development under natural wind

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Abstract

The spatial characteristics of wind-sand flow development are important for the morphological analysis of sand dunes (especially barchan dunes) used for curbing desertification projects. However, in previous studies, results were mostly obtained under the premise of a stable wind field. In this study, natural unsteady wind is accounted for, and the two-dimensional turbulent flow equilibrium differential equation (the N–S equation) is solved by large-eddy simulation method. On the premise that the characteristics of the simulated flow field are consistent with those of natural wind field, a point force model is used to calculate the trajectory of a large number of dust particles. The analysis focuses on the correlation between the development distance of the wind-sand flow, the turbulence characteristics of the wind field, and the particle size of sand. The results show that the saturation length of the unsteady incoming flow is generally shorter than that of the steady incoming flow (The turbulence intensity is equal to 0). Moreover, the overshoot phenomenon is not obvious when the particle size is small, the maximum value of the sand transport rate is generally smaller than that in stable inflow environment, and the position is more forward as the particle size increases. In addition, the saturation length decreases with an increase in turbulence intensity, and the turbulence intensity is different for the sand transport rate after space development is stable. The sand transport rate is not only delayed in time (< 2 s) but also delayed in space (~ 2.4 m).

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Data availability

The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

The program code used is not attached to the manuscript, and if the reader requests it, the author is willing to provide it.

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Funding

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11362010, 11902131). Department of Education Jiangsu Province Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (19KJB560005) Key Research Base Construction Project of Lanzhou University “Special Fund for Fundamental Scientific Research Funds for Central Universities”(lzujbky-2020-kb03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fluid Mechanics and Thermal Engineering Department, Lanzhou Technology University, Lanzhou, 73000, China

    Gaosheng Ma & Yan Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Mechanics On Disaster and Environment in Western China, Lanzhou Technology University, Lanzhou, 73000, China

    Gaosheng Ma

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224000, China

    Jinghong Zhang

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  1. Gaosheng Ma
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  2. Jinghong Zhang
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  3. Yan Wang
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Contributions

Ma realized the calculation and analysis process as well as wrote the manuscript. Zhang participated in the calculation of wind field for the sand free cases, and made a great contribution to the data analysis of this part. Y Wang help deal with the data and the post-translation work. All authors attended discussion with this work and gave suggestions.

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Correspondence to Gaosheng Ma.

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Ma, G., Zhang, J. & Wang, Y. Spatial characteristics of wind-sand flow development under natural wind. Granular Matter 23, 74 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-021-01129-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10035-021-01129-y

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