Laboratory measurement of saltating sand particles' angular velocities and simulation of its effect on saltation trajectory

Abstract

This paper reports a laboratory observation of spin attitudes and angular velocities of saltating sand particles in wind‐blown sand flux by using the high‐speed and dynamic cinecamera and presents a numerical simulation to show the effect of spin on the saltating trajectories of sand particles. Experiment results show that a saltating sand particle has two basic spin attitudes, rolling spin (Ωx, which is perpendicularity to wind direction and parallel with sand surface) and left/right spin. The percentages of the former and the latter attitude are 5% and 95%, respectively. The left/right spin angular velocities range from 0 revolutions per second (“rev/s” henceforth) to 800 rev/s and obey a single‐peaked distribution, the peak value of which lies in (150 rev/s, 250 rev/s). The rolling spin angular velocity of a saltation sand particle is variational along its entire saltating trajectory. The left/right spin vector is composed of two spin components, Ωy (called lateral spin component, rotating around the wind direction) and Ωz (called up spin component, rotating around the axis perpendicular to the sand bed). The theoretical simulation indicates that lateral and up spin components not only have effects on the trajectories' scales (i.e., heights and lengths) but also have effects on the trajectories' dimensions, especially when they are higher than 2000 rev/s and 200 rev/s, respectively. While the rolling spin angular velocities only change the trajectories' heights and lengths, especially for the rolling angular velocity higher than 300 rev/s.