Wind tunnel investigation of the influence of surface moisture content on the entrainment and erosion of beach sand by wind using sands from tropical humid coastal southern China

Wind erosion has major impacts on dune growth, desertification, and architecture on sea coasts. The deflation threshold shear velocity is a crucial parameter in predicting erosion, and surface moisture greatly affects this threshold and thus sand stability. Wind tunnel studies have shown that reduced moisture contents decrease entrainment thresholds and increase wind erosion, but field and wind tunnel test data is lacking for tropical humid coastal areas. In this study, we investigated the influence of surface moisture contents (at 1 mm depth) on sand entrainment and erosion using tropical humid coastal sands from southern China. Shear velocities were deduced from velocity profiles above the sand. The threshold shear velocity increased linearly with increasing ln100M (M, gravimetric moisture content). The increase was steepest below a moisture content of 0.0124 (i.e., at M1.5, the moisture content in the sand at a matric potential of − 1.5 MPa). We compared several popular models that predict threshold shear velocity of moisture sediment, and found substantial differences between their predicted results. At a surface moisture content of 0.0124, the predicted increase in the wet threshold shear velocity compared with the dry threshold shear velocity ranged from 34% to 195%. The empirical model of Chepil and Selah simulated the data well for M < 0.0062 (i.e., 0.5M1.5), whereas Bellyʹs empirical model simulated the data best for M > 0.0062. Wind erosion modulus increased with increasing effective wind velocity following a power function with a positive exponent at all moisture contents, but decreased with increasing surface moisture content following a power function with a negative exponent. When wind speed and moisture content varied simultaneously, wind erosion modulus was proportional to the 0.73 power of effective wind velocity, but inversely proportional to the 1.48 power of M. The increase in resistance to erosion at low moisture contents probably results from cohesive forces in the water films surrounding the sand particles. At a moisture content near M1.5, wind erosion ceases nearly for all wind velocities that we tested.