The factors influencing the abrasion efficiency of saltating grains on a clay-crusted playa

The entrainment and subsequent transport of PM10 (particulate matter \u3c 10 μm) has become an important and challenging focus of research for both scientific and practical applications. Arid and semi-arid environments are important sources for the atmospheric loading of PM10, although the emission of this material is often limited by surface crusts. It has been suggested that the primary mechanisms through which PM10 is released from a crusted surface are abrasion by saltating grains or disturbance by agricultural and recreational activities. To examine the importance of saltation abrasion in the emission of PM10, a series of field wind tunnel tests were conducted on a clay-crusted surface near Desert Wells, Arizona. In a previous part of this study it was found that the emission rate varies linearly with the saltation transport rate, although there can be considerable variation in this relationship. This paper more closely examines the source of the variability in the abrasion efficiency, the amount of PM10 emitted by a given quantity of saltating grains. The abrasion efficiency was found to vary with the susceptibility of the surface to abrasion, the ability of the sand to abrade that surface and the availability of material with a caliper size \u3c 10 μm within the crust. Specifically, the results of the study show that the abrasion efficiency is related to the crust strength, the amount of surface disturbance and the velocity of the saltating grains. It is concluded that the spatial and temporal variability of these controls on the abrasion efficiency imposes severe contextual limitations on experimentally derived models, and can make theoretical models too complex and impractical to be of use. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd

The emission and vertical flux of particulate matter \u3c10 ♂ from a disturbed clay-crusted surface

Arid and semi-arid environments are important sources for the atmospheric loading of PM10 (particulate matter \u3c10 μm), although the emission of this material is often limited by surface crusts. This study investigates the emission and vertical flux of PM10 from a clay-crusted playa, with and without saltating grains to abrade the surface. Using a portable field wind tunnel, it was found that, despite disturbance to the surface, the emission of PM10 decays rapidly without abrasion. Only in the presence of saltating grains was PM10 continuously liberated from the surface, such that the emission rate (the total amount of PM10 emitted from the surface expressed as a horizontal flux) varied linearly with the saltation transport rate. Although the emission of PM10 was found to depend on saltation abrasion, past studies have tended to focus on the relationship between the vertical flux of PM10 (the amount of PM10 being transported vertically through the boundary layer) and the shear velocity. In this study, the vertical flux of PM10 was found to vary with the shear velocity to the power of 2.14. Although the vertical PM10 flux is a proportion of the emission rate (the horizontal flux), no statistically significant relationship was observed between the emission rate and the shear velocity. The disparity of these results is explained by the lack of a consistent relationship between the shear velocity and the saltation transport rate in this supply-limited environment. This suggests that the observed relationship between the vertical PM10 flux and the shear velocity is a spurious correlation, resulting from the use of shear velocity to calculate the vertical dust flux. It is thus concluded that shear velocity is not an appropriate variable for emission modelling in supply-limited environments and that improvements in dust emission modelling will only be realized if the abrasion process is the focus of a concerted research effort

Analysis of velocity profile measurements from wind-tunnel experiments with saltation

Investigations of wind-field modification due to the presence of saltating sediments have relied heavily on wind tunnels, which are known to impose geometric constraints on full boundary layer development. There remains great uncertainty as to which portion of the vertical wind-speed profile to analyze when deriving estimates of shear velocity or surface roughness length because the lower sections are modified to varying degree by saltation, whereas the upper segments may be altered by artificially induced wake-like effects. Thus, it is not obvious which of several alternative velocity-profile parameterizations (e.g., Law of the Wall, Velocity Defect Law, Wake Law) should be employed under such circumstances.A series of experimental wind-tunnel runs was conducted across a range of wind speed using fine- and coarse-grained sand to collect high-quality, fine-resolution data within and above the saltation layer using thermal anemometry and ruggedized probes. After each run, the rippled bottom was fixed with fine mist, and the experiment repeated without saltation. The measured wind-speed profiles were analyzed using six different approaches to derive estimates of shear velocity and roughness length. The results were compared to parameter estimates derived directly from sediment transport rate measurements, and on this basis, it is suggested that one of the six approaches is more robust than the others. Specifically, the best estimate of shear velocity during saltation is provided by the logarithmic law applied to the profile data within about 0.05 m of the bottom, despite the fact that this near-surface region is where profile modification by saltating sediments is most pronounced. Uncertainty remains as to whether this conclusion can be generalized to field situations because progressive downwind adjustments in the interrelationship between the saltation layer and the wind field are anticipated in wind tunnels, thereby confounding most analyses based on equilibrium assumptions. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved