Inflow Rate Impact on Hillslope Erosion Processes and Flow Hydrodynamics

Impacts of rainfall and inflow on rill formation and erosion processes on steep hillslopes

Interrill erosion processes on gentle slopes are affected by mechanisms of raindrop impact, overland flow and their interaction. However, limited experimental work has been conducted to understand how important each of the mechanisms are and how they interact, in particular for peat soil. Laboratory simulation experiments were conducted on peat blocks under two slopes (2.5° and 7.5°) and three treatments: Rainfall, where rainfall with an intensity of 12 mm h−1 was simulated; Inflow, where upslope overland flow at a rate of 12 mm h−1 was applied; and Rainfall + Inflow which combined both Rainfall and Inflow. Overland flow, sediment loss and overland flow velocity data were collected and splash cups were used to measure the mass of sediment detached by raindrops. Raindrop impact was found to reduce overland flow by 10 to 13%, due to increased infiltration, and reduce erosion by 47% on average for both slope gradients. Raindrop impact also reduced flow velocity (80–92%) and increased roughness (72–78%). The interaction between rainfall and flow was found to significantly reduce sediment concentrations (73–85%). Slope gradient had only a minor effect on overland flow and sediment yield. Significantly higher flow velocities and sediment yields were observed under the Rainfall + Inflow treatment compared to the Rainfall treatment. On average, upslope inflow was found to increase erosion by 36%. These results indicate that overland flow and erosion processes on peat hillslopes are affected by upslope inflow. There was no significant relationship between interrill erosion and overland flow, whereas stream power had a strong relationship with erosion. These findings help improve our understanding of the importance of interrill erosion processes on peat. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The soil erosion of the spoil tips seriously threatens the safety of people's lives and property and the surrounding ecological environment. Rill erosion is an important cause of water and soil loss in spoil tips. This study was conducted to investigate the process of rill erosion on the slopes of spoil tips, changes in the morphological characteristics of rills and the mechanisms of rill erosion. A Field runoff plot (5 m long, 1 m wide and 0.5 m deep) with three inflow rates (1.6, 2 and 2.4 mm min−1) and three typical slopes (28°, 32° and 36°) was used for runoff simulation experiments. The results showed that, compared with the slope and scouring times, inflow rate was the most important factor affecting rill erosion of the spoil tips. The development of rill mainly goes through three stages: the rill formation stage, the rill development stage and the rill adjustment stage. The overall predominance of parallel-shaped rills at all experiments suggested that the formation of rills was dominated by concentrated runoff. The average rill depth was the best indicator of rill morphology for evaluating rill erosion. The flow regimes under the experimental conditions were supercritical-laminar flow and supercritical-transition flow. The Reynolds number was the best hydraulic parameter for predicting rill erosion. The stream power was the best hydrodynamic parameter to describe rill erosion mechanism. These results contributed to further revealing the rill erosion mechanism on the slope of the spoil tips and provided a scientific basis for its soil erosion control.

The soil erosion of the spoil tips seriously threatens the safety of people's lives and property and the surrounding ecological environment. Rill erosion is an important cause of water and soil loss in spoil tips. This study was conducted to investigate the process of rill erosion on the slopes of spoil tips, changes in the morphological characteristics of rills and the mechanisms of rill erosion. A Field runoff plot (5 m long, 1 m wide and 0.5 m deep) with three inflow rates (1.6, 2 and 2.4 mm min−1) and three typical slopes (28°, 32° and 36°) was used for runoff simulation experiments. The results showed that, compared with the slope and scouring times, inflow rate was the most important factor affecting rill erosion of the spoil tips. The development of rill mainly goes through three stages: the rill formation stage, the rill development stage and the rill adjustment stage. The overall predominance of parallel-shaped rills at all experiments suggested that the formation of rills was dominated by concentrated runoff. The average rill depth was the best indicator of rill morphology for evaluating rill erosion. The flow regimes under the experimental conditions were supercritical-laminar flow and supercritical-transition flow. The Reynolds number was the best hydraulic parameter for predicting rill erosion. The stream power was the best hydrodynamic parameter to describe rill erosion mechanism. These results contributed to further revealing the rill erosion mechanism on the slope of the spoil tips and provided a scientific basis for its soil erosion control.

Apportioning contributions of individual rill erosion processes and their interactions on loessial hillslopes

Comparison of loess and purple rill erosions measured with volume replacement method

Quantification of soil detachment rates is necessary to establish a basic understanding of soil erosion processes and to develop fundamental‐based erosion models. Many studies have been conducted on the detachment rates of disturbed soils, but very little has been done to quantify the rates of detachment for natural soil conditions. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of flow discharge, slope gradient, flow velocity, shear stress, stream power, and unit stream power on detachment rates of natural, undisturbed, mixed mesic typical Udorthent soil. Flow rates ranged from 0.25 to 2.0 L s−1 and slope gradient ranged from 8.8 to 46.6%. This study was compared with a previous study that used disturbed soil prepared by static compression. The results indicated that the detachment rates of disturbed soil were 1 to 23 times greater than the ones of natural undisturbed soil. It was necessary to use natural undisturbed soil samples to simulate the detachment process and to evaluate the influence of hydraulic parameter on detachment rate. Along with flow rate increasing, detachment rate increased as a linear function. Detachment rate also increased with slope gradient, but the functional relationship between the two variables depended on flow rate. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that detachment rate could be well predicted by a power function of flow rate and slope gradient (R2 = 0.96). Mean flow velocity was closely correlated to detachment rate (r2 = 0.91). Flow detachment rate was better correlated to a power function of stream power (r2 = 0.95) than to functions of either shear stress or unit stream power.

The influence of tillage practices on soil detachment in the red soil region of China

Evaluating the effects of forest tree species on rill detachment capacity in a semi-arid environment

Soil erodibility and hillslope erosion processes affected by vegetation restoration duration

Abstract. Sediment transport is an important component of the soil erosion process, which depends on several hydraulic parameters like unit discharge, mean flow velocity, and slope gradient. In most of the previous studies, the impact of these hydraulic parameters on transport capacity was studied for non-erodible bed conditions. Hence, this study aimed to examine the influence of unit discharge, mean flow velocity and slope gradient on sediment transport capacity for erodible beds and also to investigate the relationship between transport capacity and composite force predictors, i.e. shear stress, stream power, unit stream power and effective stream power. In order to accomplish the objectives, experiments were carried out in a 3.0 m long and 0.5 m wide flume using four well sorted sands (0.230, 0.536, 0.719, 1.022 mm). Unit discharges ranging from 0.07 to 2.07 × 10−3 m2 s−1 were simulated inside the flume at four slopes (5.2, 8.7, 13.2 and 17.6%) to analyze their impact on sediment transport rate. The sediment transport rate measured at the bottom end of the flume by taking water and sediment samples was considered equal to sediment transport capacity, because the selected flume length of 3.0 m was found sufficient to reach the transport capacity. The experimental result reveals that the slope gradient has a stronger impact on transport capacity than unit discharge and mean flow velocity due to the fact that the tangential component of gravity force increases with slope gradient. Our results show that unit stream power is an optimal composite force predictor for estimating transport capacity. Stream power and effective stream power can also be successfully related to the transport capacity, however the relations are strongly dependent on grain size. Shear stress showed poor performance, because part of shear stress is dissipated by bed irregularities, bed form evolution and sediment detachment. An empirical transport capacity equation was derived, which illustrates that transport capacity can be predicted from median grain size, total discharge and slope gradient.

Relationship among runoff, soil erosion, and rill morphology on slopes of overburdened stockpiles under simulated rainfall

Runoff scouring experimental study of rill erosion of spoil tips

Biocrust effects on soil stability and hydrodynamic erosion in southern China's red soil.

Characterizing erosion processes on a convex slope based on 3D reconstruction method