Numerical Investigation of Wind Erosion to the Grooved Concrete Wall Surface under a Wind-Blown Sand Movement

Shanqun Chen,Runchao Tang,Longzhu Zhang,Bin Liao,Gianfranco Carotenuto

doi:10.1155/2021/1604186

Abstract

Wind erosion to the grooved concrete wall surface under a wind-blown sand movement was numerically studied. Particularly, the influencing factors that affect the wind erosion to the grooved concrete wall surface were systematically investigated by using the RNG k − ε turbulence model combined with the discrete phase model (DPM). It was found that, under a relatively low impact angle, the damage mechanism to the grooved wall surface is wind-blown sand impact, and the erosion rates of the grooved wall surfaces are higher than those of the smooth wall surfaces. By contrast, under a relatively high impact angle, the damage mechanism to the grooved wall surface transfers to the microcutting effect, and the erosion rates show an opposite trend. The optimization rates between the erosion of grooved and smooth wall surfaces increase with increasing groove size or groove number. However, the damage mechanism to the grooved wall surface is hardly changed by expanding the groove area. The erosion rate distribution and the optimization rates of the groove wall surfaces are not significantly changed by adjusting the spacing between the grooves alone. When the groove shape changes from semicircular to rectangular, the erosion rate distribution is significantly changed, and the wear resistance of the changed grooved wall surface gets better.

Highlights

Wind erosion is usually caused by strong wind or sand particles carried by the wind, which is an inevitable problem in the long-term service of concrete structures
Effects of Wind Velocity and Impact Angle. e damage to concrete wall surfaces by sand particles is a direct source of wind erosion, and the kinetic energy of sand particles is mainly dependent on the ambient wind flow
Considering that using larger velocities can save a lot of computing resources and highlight the effects of groove and impact angle to the wear resistance of wind erosion [21], the wind velocities of 19 m/s, 23 m/s, and 26 m/s are continuedly used in the numerical calculations. e calculation of optimization rate is ers − erg/ers, where erg and ers are the erosion rates of grooved and smooth wall surfaces, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Wind erosion is usually caused by strong wind or sand particles carried by the wind, which is an inevitable problem in the long-term service of concrete structures. To aim at strengthening the concrete walls ability to resist wind erosion and reduce wind damage, the builders use methods such as increase mating ratios [3, 4] or overlay protective coatings [1, 5] to improve the wear resistance of concrete wall surface These methods usually increase economic costs but do not achieve the desired results. E improvement of texture structures to the wear resistance of wind erosion can be included in two aspects These texture structures can significantly alter the wind-sand flow around the body surface and the trajectories of sand particles carried by the wind. En, we compare and analyze the numerical results between grooved and smooth concrete wall surfaces under different wind velocities and impact angles.

Numerical Model and Validation

Results and Discussions

Conclusions