Soil erosion rates from mixed soil and gravel surfaces in a wind tunnel

Technical Report · Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6603562· OSTI ID:6603562

Ligotke, M W; Klopfer, D C

Protective barriers have been identified as integral components of plans to isolate defense waste on the Hanford Site. The use of natural materials to construct protective barriers over waste site is being considered. Design requirements for protective barriers include preventing exposure of buried waste, and restricting penetration or percolation of surface waters through the waste zone. Studies were initiated to evaluate the effects of wind erosion on candidate protective barrier surfaces. A wind tunnel was used to provide controlled erosive stresses and to investigate the erosive effects of wind forces on proposed surface layers for protective barriers. Mixed soil and gravel surfaces were prepared and tested for resistance to wind erosion at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory Aerosol Wind Tunnel Research Facility. These tests were performed to investigate surface deflation caused by suspension of soil from various surface layer configurations and to provide a comparison of the relative resistance of the different surfaces to wind erosion. Planning, testing, and analyzing phases of this wind erosion project were coordinated with other tasks supporting the development of protective barriers. These tasks include climate-change predictions, field studies and modeling efforts. This report provides results of measurements of deflation caused by wind forces over level surfaces. Section 2.0 reviews surface layer characteristics and previous relevant studies on wind erosion, describes effects of erosion, and discusses wind tunnel modeling. Materials and methods of the wind tunnel tests are discussed in Section 3.0. Results and discussion are presented in Section 4.0, and conclusions and recommendations Section 5.0. 53 refs., 29 figs., 7 tabs.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: AC06-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 6603562
• Report Number(s): PNL-7435; ON: DE90018008
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
GROUND COVER
DESIGN
SOILS
EROSION
WIND
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
WIND TUNNELS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CLIMATES
EVALUATION
HANFORD RESERVATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICULATES
PERMEABILITY
PLANNING
PLANTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
ROCKS
TESTING
MATERIALS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
PARTICLES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
TUNNELS
UNDERGROUND FACILITIES
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WASTES
540210* - Environment
Terrestrial- Basic Studies- (1990-)
540110