Design of a Pressurized Rainfall Simulator for Evaluating Performance of Erosion Control Practices

Ricks, Matthew D.; Horne, Matthew A.; Faulkner, B.; Zech, Wesley C.; Fang, Xing; Donald, Wesley N.; Perez, Michael A.

doi:10.3390/w11112386

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…These were chosen deliberately based on IDF curves from countries of the Central and Eastern Africa, a region in the Sub-Saharan Africa where about 80% of the road networks are unpaved [9], [12][13][14] and thus in much need to control erosion in these roads. Using the flour method to determine the size of the raindrops [3], [7], [15][16][17], the drop sizes of 3 mm, 3.2 mm, and 3.5 mm were found, leading to the kinetic energy from the raindrops of 193.5 µJ, 244 µJ and 301.1 µJ, respectively for 30 mm/hr, 51 mm/hr and 68 mm/hr rainfall intensities. The sizes of the raindrops were satisfactory to initiate erosion of soils of 0.4 mm < D50 < 1.5 mm [18], which were found appropriate at the surface of unpaved roads [9].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The size of the raindrops can be determined using various methods such as the stain method, the momentum method, the immersion method, the oil method, the photographic method, and the flour method [16]. According to Horne [3] and Ricks et al [17], the stain method relates the stain on absorbent surfaces such as filter and blueprint papers to the diameter of the raindrops. Contrary, the momentum method uses both pressure transducers and piezoelectric sensors to determine the raindrops' sizes while immersion method uses collection of raindrops into an oil where they are surrounded by oil due to its low density their diameters determined using a microscope [3], [16].…”

Section: Determination Of the Raindrops' Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

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Calibration of the Simple Rainfall Simulator for Investigating Soil Erodibility in Unpaved Roads

Ngezahayo¹,

Burrow²,

Ghataora³

2021

IJCI

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Rainfall simulators have been used for erosion research for more than 50 years now. These are widely used in agricultural soils to assess the infiltration capacity and porosity of soils, and hence learn lessons on the potential of plant roots to penetrate those soils. Recently, rainfall simulators have been very useful to investigate soils detachment by both the raindrops kinetic energy and the subsequent flow shear stress. This has led to notable advances in the understanding of the failure of infrastructures such as unpaved roads due to surface soil loss and formation of erosion features, buried pipes and facilities due to removal of fill materials, as well as bridge scour and embankments failures to mention a few. To help conduct a thorough and rigorous research, rainfall simulators must produce raindrops of the same size as those produced by the natural rainfall. Calibrating rainfall simulators satisfying this key demand of raindrops sizes in the range of 1 mm to 6 mm posed challenges for years, and therefore led to inconsistencies in results from different studies. In this paper, an economical rainfall simulator which can be used for assessing erodibility of soils in unpaved roads was developed. The flour method technique was used to determine the sizes of the raindrops. The mean raindrops sizes were found to be 3.0 mm, 3.2 mm, and 3.5 mm, respectively for the rainfall intensities of 30 mm/hr, 51 mm/hr and 68 mm/hr falling through 2.0 m. In the same order of rainfall intensities, raindrops hit the surface of the tested surfaces by 193.5 µJ, 244 µJ and 301 µJ kinetic energies, which were sufficient to initiate detachment in soils of D50 ranging from about 0.4 mm to 1.5 mm compacted to maximum dry density.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Determination Of the Raindrops' Sizementioning

confidence: 99%

Calibration of the Simple Rainfall Simulator for Investigating Soil Erodibility in Unpaved Roads

Ngezahayo¹,

Burrow²,

Ghataora³

2021

IJCI

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“…Moreover, adding English china clay to gravelly SAND and very gravelly SAND soils improved both cohesion and plasticity indexes (Ip) which then ranged from 0% to 12%, as required for the surface soils of earth and gravel roads [20]- [22]. The raindrops fell through 2 meters above the surface of the sample and the flour method was used to determine the size of the raindrops [23]- [27]. It was found that the mean drop sizes were 3, 3.2, and 3.5 mm respectively for the 30, 51, and 68 mm/hr rainfall intensities.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling the Effects of Soil Properties, Rainfall and Road Geometry to Erosion in Unpaved Roads

Ngezahayo¹,

Ghataora²,

Burrow³

2021

IJCI

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Erosion of soils seriously challenges the sustainability and safety in unpaved roads. It leads to faster deterioration of these roads by formation of rills and gullies in the running surface. Many factors related to the soil properties, rainfall parameters, and road geometry affect erodibility of soils at the surface of unpaved roads. However, little is known about the relationships between those factors of erodibility for a single rainfall event. This paper models the contributions of soil properties, intensity and duration of the rainfall, and road's length and gradient to the quantity of eroded soils from unpaved roads. For a 30-minute duration and two consecutive days; rainfall intensities of 30 mm/hr, 51 mm/hr and 68 mm/hr were used to test the erodibility of soils. The tested bed surfaces were set at slopes of 0% and 6%, in a small (large)-scale testing box of 0.6 m (1.2 m) x 0.3 m x 0.17 m (length x width x height). RapidMiner Studio software was used to predict quantities of eroded soils based on the measured eroded soils under the same influencing factors of erodibility. Six predictive models were developed based on the first-and second-day rainfall events. The predictive models can perform well with the Nash and Sutcliffe's coefficients of efficiency (ME) ranging from 0.62 to 0.74. Also, clay content and mean particle size of the surface soils, rainfall intensity and slope gradient were the most contributing factors to the quantity of eroded soils from unpaved roads.

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“…Testing was performed to calibrate the simulator and conduct bare soil control tests. The researchers were able to show that rainfall intensities of the simulator conformed to ASTM D6459‐15, as did uniformity and consistency of droplet sizes (Ricks et al, 2019).…”

Section: Erosion and Sediment Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban stormwater characterization, control, and treatment

Rodak

Jayakaran

Moore

et al. 2020

Water Environment Research

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This review summarizes over 280 studies published in 2019 related to the characterization, control, and management of urban stormwater runoff. A summary of quantity and quality concerns is provided in the first section of the review, serving as the foundation for the following sections which focus on the control and treatment of stormwater runoff. Finally, the impact of stormwater control devices at the watershed scale is discussed. Each section provides a self-contained overview of the 2019 literature, common themes, and future work. Several themes emerged from the 2019 literature including exploration of substrate amendments for improved water quality effluent from stormwater controls, the continued study of the role of vegetation in green infrastructure practices, and a call to action for the development of new models which generate reliable, computationally efficient results under the physical, chemical, biological, and social complexity of stormwater management. © 2020 Water Environment Federation • Practitioner points • Over 280 studies were published in 2019 related to the characterization, control, and treatment of urban stormwater. • Studies on bioretention and general stormwater characteristics represented the two most common subtopics in 2019. • Trends in 2019 included novel substrate amendments, studies on the role of vegetation, and advancements in computational models.

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Design of a Pressurized Rainfall Simulator for Evaluating Performance of Erosion Control Practices

Cited by 18 publications

References 17 publications

Calibration of the Simple Rainfall Simulator for Investigating Soil Erodibility in Unpaved Roads

Calibration of the Simple Rainfall Simulator for Investigating Soil Erodibility in Unpaved Roads

Modelling the Effects of Soil Properties, Rainfall and Road Geometry to Erosion in Unpaved Roads

Urban stormwater characterization, control, and treatment

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