Improvement and Application of the Similarity Saltation Model: Wind-Tunnel Experimental Investigation and Numerical Simulation of the Vertical Sand Mass Flux Distribution in the Saltation Layer

Based upon comparisons between published experimental data and simulated results on the vertical sand flux distribution in the saltation layer, Shao’s similarity saltation model has been greatly improved by correcting the average vertical particle lift-off velocity and using a more suitable universal roughness length. By the improved model, the vertical sand flux profile over the bare, dry and loose uniform sandy surface, which is quite representative of real desert surfaces, can be reproduced very well. Meanwhile, the surface transport rate and the characteristic and average saltation heights have been simulated and analyzed in detail, disclosing their relationships with friction velocity, particle size and roughness length, and the possible underlying mechanisms. Besides, the average particle lift-off velocity and the average mean vertical aerodynamic action upon the ascending particle, which determine the saltation process, are explicitly expressed by parameters involved in the similarity model, and their relationships with friction velocity, particle size and roughness length are also described concisely. The corrected average particle lift-off velocity makes it possible to investigate the characteristic particle trajectory, whose initial velocity equals the average lift-off velocity, so as to estimate the average particle against surface impacting velocity and the average aerodynamic action upon the saltation process.