Wind-tunnel experiment on sand deposition mechanism and optimal measures of wind-break wall along railway in strong wind area

TLDR: In this paper, the authors put forward the idea of setting up the second retaining wall at different positions on the leeward side of existing wind-break wall to reduce sand particles sedimentation.

Abstract: The Lan-Xin Railway II from Lanzhou to Xinjiang is the first high-speed railway which passes through the strong wind zones in the world, and it passes through the famous "Yan Dun", "Hundred Miles", "Thirty Miles" and "Dabancheng" wind zones. The total length of the railway is more than 462.4 kilometers, accounting for 65.1${\%}$ of the total length of railway in Xinjiang. Strong winds can do great harm to the operation, maintenance and transportation of railways. In order to resist the damage of strong wind to train, a large number of wind-break walls were built along the Lan-Xin Railway II. The wind-break wall reduces the strong wind damage, but brings a new disaster caused by sand sedimentation. To solve the problem of this engineering practice, this paper puts forward the idea of setting up the second retaining wall at different positions on the leeward side of existing wind-break wall to reduce sand particles sedimentation. The wind tunnel experiment was employed to simulate the wind-sand flow environment. Three typical configurations are considered: 1) single wind-break wall; 2) two walls and the second one locates at the top of the leeward slope of subgrade; 3) two walls and the second one locates at the foot of the leeward slope of subgrade. The decrease rates of the horizontal velocity, number density, horizontal transport flux and deposition rate of sand particles at the height of 0.1 m after the second wall are respectively 8${\%}$$\sim $12${\%}$, 51${\%}$$\sim $69${\%}$, 20${\%}$$\sim $73${\%}$ and 26${\%}$$\sim $38${\%}$, by comparing to the case without the second wall. It is found that the second retaining wall at the foot of the leeward slope of subgrade is optimal. The research result of this paper is helpful to optimize the preventing sand sedimentation measures of existing railway lines and towns in the strong wind zone.