Slope Interrupter Best Management Practice Experiments on a Tilting Soil Bed with Simulated Rainfall

Abstract

This paper documents an experimental study conducted to evaluate the performance of two commonly used sediment treatment control products, albeit with contrasting treatment technologies: a fiber roll or wattle (i.e., three-dimensional filter) and a perforated pipe wrapped by a pervious geosynthetic material (i.e., boundary filter). Emphasis was placed on (1) simulating field conditions and (2) describing performance via runoff, sediment yield, and particle-size measurements. Scaling problems typically associated with erosion experiments were minimized by using standard-size products (not scaled models) and a large-scale erosion bed with overhead rainfall simulators, with which dominant forms of soil erosion and sediment transport were attained. The results indicate that the experimental procedures and measurements utilized are appropriate for quantifying the erosion control performance of the products tested. In particular, the measurements revealed the important role of installation quality on BMP performance. Results also indicate that the magnitudes of peak discharge and total runoff from compacted, bare soils on steep slopes can approach values typical of highly impervious surfaces.