Aerodynamic and impact thresholds for cohesive mixture of sand and non-volatile liquid

Jean-Baptiste Besnard (1, 2) , Alexandre Valance (1) , Pascal Dupont (1) , Ahmed Ould El Moctar (3)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
2 LGCGM - Laboratoire de Génie Civil et Génie Mécanique
3 LTeN - Laboratoire de Thermique et d’Energie de Nantes

The moisture has been recognized to have a significant influence on the initiation movement of sand by wind and consequently on sand transport rates. The pertinent literature regarding these phenomena is sparse and current available theoretical and empirical models exhibit considerable disagreement regarding the magnitude of moisture effects. We believe that these discrepancies comes from the fact that the moisture levels are not well controlled neither properly measured and are susceptible to strongly vary over time due to evaporation. To get rid of the variability of moisture content due to evaporation, we propose a new approach based on the use of non-volatile liquid, namely silicon oil instead of water. This insures a proper control of the liquid content and the production of reliable data concerning the variation of the transport threshold with liquid content.

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]; Physique [physics]

Jean-Baptiste Besnard, Alexandre Valance, Pascal Dupont, Ahmed Ould El Moctar. Aerodynamic and impact thresholds for cohesive mixture of sand and non-volatile liquid. EPJ Web of Conferences, 2021, 249, pp.08007. ⟨10.1051/epjconf/202124908007⟩. ⟨hal-03451128⟩