Exploration of playa surface crusts in Qehan Lake, China through field investigation and wind tunnel experiments

Globally,many lakes are drying up,leaving exposed lakebeds where wind erosion releases dust and sand rich in salt and harmful heavy metals into the atmosphere.Therefore,understanding the characteristics and spatial distribution of playa surface crusts is important to recognize the manifestation of salt dust storms.The objective of this study was to explore the playa surface crust types as well as their spatial distribution and evolution of Qehan Lake in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,China to understand the salt dust release potential of different types of playa surface crusts.Various crust characteristics were investigated by field sampling in Qehan Lake,and playa surface crusts were further divided into five types:vegetated areas,salt crusts,clay flats,curly crusts,and margins.It should be noted that curly crusts were distributed in clay flats and covered only a small area in Qehan Lake.The spatial distribution characteristics of playa surface crust types were obtained by supervised classification of remote sensing images,and the salt dust release potential of crusts was explored by the wind tunnel experiments.The field investigation of Qehan Lake revealed that playa surface crust types had a circum-lake band distribution from the inside to the outside of this lake,which were successively vegetated areas,clay flats,salt crusts,and margins.The spatial distribution patterns of playa surface crust types were mainly controlled by the hydrodynamics of the playa,soil texture,and groundwater.There was a significant negative correlation between crust thickness and electrical conductivity.The results of the wind tunnel experiments showed that the initial threshold of friction wind velocity for the salt dust release was higher in clay flats(0.7–0.8 m/s)than in salt crusts(0.5–0.6 m/s).Moreover,the particle leap impact processes occurring under natural conditions may reduce this threshold value.Salinity was the main factor controlling the difference in the initial threshold of friction wind velocity for the salt dust release of clay flats and salt crusts.This study provides a scientific reference for understanding how salt dust is released from a lakebed,which may be used for ecological restoration of dry salt lakes.

Modelling of dust emissions induced by flow over stockpiles and through packed beds

Dust emissions during storage of non-moving bulk materials are studied with a numerical method.The model relies on a contact-model-free Discrete Element Method(DEM)to model the bulk particle-fluid interaction and the dust removal coupled with Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD)to model the gas and the dust phase in a multiphase framework.Here,two storage scenarios are considered:a flown through packed bed and a flown over stockpile.For the first,the performed simulations reveal that the dust discharge can be correlated with the passing fluid pressure drop.For the second,a parameter study of factors influencing the dust emissions is performed.The parameters discussed are the stockpile size,the gas velocity,the slope angle,the particle diameter and the shape of the stockpile,taking into account conical and truncated conical stockpiles.Dust release correlations are obtained for both scenarios,which reflect very well the obtained numerical results.