Proceedings

EPJ E Highlight - Greater desertification control using sand trap simulations

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Spatial distribution of sand particles in the test straw checkerboard barrier.

A new simulation will help improve artificial sand-control measures designed to help combat desertification by identifying their weaknesses

In the fight against desertification, so-called straw checkerboard barriers (SCB), consisting of half -exposed criss-crossing rows of straw of wheat, rice, reeds, and other plants, play a significant role. The trouble is that our understanding of the laws governing wind-sand movement in SCB and their surrounding area is insufficient. Now, Ning Huang and colleagues from Lanzhou University in China, have performed a numerical simulation of the sand movement inside the SCB, described in a paper just published in EPJ E. Their country is particularly affected by desertification, which affects 18% of its territory. The results will help us to understand sand fixation mechanisms that are relevant for sandstorm and land-desertification control.

The authors relied on a simulation of large eddies, which are circulations around an obstruction such as the SCB walls, to study the turbulence stress. They also used a discrete particle-tracing method to numerically simulate the wind sand movement inside the SCB. Specifically, they described the sand as a gas, using equations to describe their space-averaged hydrodynamics. They also analysed in detail the movement characteristics of sand particles, the transverse velocities of sand particles and wind-sand flow within the SCB using a model taking into consideration the coupling effects of wind field and sand particles.

Huang and colleagues found that the SCB contributed to a decrease in the sand transport rate in its interior, thus helping the sand fixation. What is more, as the transverse distance increases, the strength of wind-sand flow eddies decreases. Meanwhile, the sand accumulates near the interior walls of the SCB. Finally, as the number of SCBs increases, the wind is less able to transport sand.

Future studies will be designed to optimise SCB design, based on the authors’ theoretical analysis. These findings could also be used to study the evolution to sand dunes.

Numerical Simulation of Wind-sand Movement in Straw Checkerboard Barriers. N. Huang, X. Xia, D. Tong (2013), European Physical Journal E 36: 99, DOI 10.1140/epje/i2013-13099-6

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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