Abstract:The accurate production of a rainfall environment similar to natural rainfall by a rainfall simulator (RS) is a crucial and challenging task in rainfall instrument testing or calibration. Although the spatial uniformity of rainfall accumulation is a key parameter of an RS, the spatial uniformity comparison between simulated rainfall and natural rainfall, and the spatial uniformity improvements for an RS are scant in the literature. In this study, a fine-scale natural rainfall experiment was studied using the same testing methods of an RS and the rainfall uniformity was evaluated using the Christiansen Uniformity Coefficient (CU). Simultaneously, factors influencing the spatial uniformity of natural rainfall, including the average rainfall accumulation (RA), the deviation of RA, and the area of the test zone, were analyzed. The results successfully reproduced some of the behaviors observed in natural rainfall experiments, showing that CU is dependent on these parameters. Based on these studies, we developed a rainfall simulator with a rotary platform (RSRP) and found that although spatial uniformity of the RSRP was greatly improved using an appropriate rotary speed, it was not consistent with the spatial uniformity of natural rainfall. Furthermore, we tested four tipping-bucket rain gauges using this imperfect RSRP, and found that the RSRP might acquire the instrumental errors associated with RA for a tested rainfall instrument.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.