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Abstract. Aggregate breakdown is an important process which controls infiltration rate (IR) and the availability of fine materials necessary for structural sealing under rainfall. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different slope gradients, rain intensities and particle size distributions on aggregate breakdown and IR to describe the formation of surface seal. To address this issue, 60 experiments were carried out in a 35 × 30 × 10 cm detachment tray using a rainfall simulator. By sieving a sandy loam soil, two sub-samples with different maximum aggregate sizes of 2 mm (D max 2 mm) and 4.75 mm (D max 4.75 mm) were prepared. The soils were exposed to two different rain intensities (57 and 80 mm h −1 ) on several slopes (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10 and 20 %) each at three replicates. The result showed that for all slope gradients and rain intensities, the most fraction percentages in soils D max 2 and D max 4.75 mm were in the finest size classes of 0.02 and 0.043 mm, respectively. The soil containing finer aggregates exhibited higher transportability of pre-detached material than the soil containing larger aggregates. Also, IR increased with increasing slope gradient, rain intensity and aggregate size under unsteady state conditions because of less development of surface seal. However, under steady state conditions, no significant relationship was found between slope and IR. The findings of this study revealed the importance of rain intensity, slope steepness and soil aggregate size on aggregate breakdown and seal formation, which can control infiltration rate and the consequent runoff and erosion rates.

Purpose Rain-induced overland flow involves the detachment of soil particles by raindrop impact and the transportation by the resultant overland flow. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sediment concentration and different hydraulic parameters including flow depth, flow velocity, shear stress, stream power, and unit stream power. The effects of soil particle size distribution, rain intensity, and slope steepness on measured sediment concentration in rain-induced sheet flow were also examined. Materials and methods Two arid land soils with different particles size distributions (D 2mm and D 4.75mm ) were subjected to simulated rains using a detachment tray under infiltration conditions. Two rain intensities of 57 and 80 mm h −1 were simulated on slope gradients ranging from 0.5 to 20 %, resulting in rain-induced overland flows. After pre-wetting each soil, the sediment-laden overland flow was sampled at several time intervals (2, 5, 15, 20, 30, and 40 min) and the sediment concentration was determined. Different hydraulic parameters including flow depth, flow velocity, shear stress, stream power, and unit stream power were measured. The hydraulic parameters were used to model the sediment concentration, and the model performance was evaluated. Results and discussion The result showed that the measured sediment concentration was greater in the higher rainfall intensity and at steeper slopes. With increasing slope steepness, sediment concentration increased from 4.3 to 15.5 kg m −3 and from 3.8 to 12.5 kg m −3 for soils D 2mm and D 4.75mm , respectively. There was a direct relationship between sediment concentration and the rain-induced flow velocity, shear stress, stream power, and unit stream power. Nevertheless, the values of sediment concentration increased as flow depth decreased on steeper slopes. Also, sediment concentration was lower in the soil containing larger aggregates than in the finer soil. The hydraulic parameters tended to overestimate low amounts of sediment concentration and underestimate high values. Conclusions In general, the accuracy of the hydraulic parameters in predicting sediment concentration was: flow velocity > stream power > shear stress > unit stream power > flow depth. Flow velocity was the best predictor of sediment concentration with a linear relationship, whereas the other parameters showed nonlinear relationships. This study revealed that rain-induced sediment concentration at small scales can be modeled precisely on the basis of the flow velocity parameter.

Abstract. Aggregate breakdown is an important process which controls infiltration rate (IR) and the availability of fine materials necessary for structural sealing under rainfall. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different slope gradients, rain intensities and particle size distributions on aggregate breakdown and IR to describe the formation of surface sealing. To address this issue, 60 experiments were carried out in a 35 cm x 30 cm x 10 cm detachment tray using a rainfall simulator. By sieving a sandy loam soil, two sub-samples with different maximum aggregate sizes of 2 mm (Dmax 2 mm) and 4.75 mm (Dmax4.75 mm) were prepared. The soils were exposed to two different rain intensities (57 and 80 mm h-1) on several slopes (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20%) each at three replications. The result showed that the most fraction percentages in soils Dmax 2 mm and Dmax 4.75 mm were in the finest size classes of 0.02 and 0.043 mm, respectively for all slope gradients and rain intensities. The soil containing finer aggregates exhibited higher transportability of pre-detached material than the soil containing larger aggregates. Also, IR increased with increasing slope gradient, rain intensity and aggregate size under unsteady state conditions because of less development of surface seal. But under steady state conditions, no significant relationship was found between slope and IR. The finding of this study revealed the importance of rain intensity, slope steepness and soil aggregate size on aggregate breakdown and seal formation, which can control infiltration rate and the consequent runoff and erosion rates.