Author(s): Sarik Salim; Ravindra Jayaratne
Linked Author(s): Ravindra Jayaratne
Keywords: Soil-hydrodynamic behaviour; Soil erodibility; Crescent zones; Empirical relationship; Dimensional analysis; Best-fit technique
Abstract: The current paper discusses an extended investigation on the hydrodynamic behaviour of soil erosion under the fully controlled laboratory conditions studied in previous experiments (Jayaratne et al., 2010a, 2010b). The Ahlborn sediment mobile bed tank at the University of East London hydraulics laboratory was purposefully re-fabricated to install a Soil Protrusion Apparatus (SPA) for investigating sediment properties on soil erodibility (Jayaratne et al., 2010a). A plastic sediment bed was used to allow hydraulic measurements to be carried out with clear visual observation. An HD digital video camera was used to record the soil-hydrodynamic phenomena and digital images were analysed to obtain accurate measurements of the spreading area and volume with a computer aided design software. Extended physical modelling of crescent zones also included analysing their grain size distribution. Measured sediment and flow data were used to develop a simple empirical relationship for erosion rate for each crescent zone using dimensional analysis and best-fit techniques.
Year: 2011