Abstract
The splashing of water drops on a soil surface is the first step of water erosion. There have been many investigations into splashing–most are based on recording and analysing images taken with high-speed cameras, or measuring the mass of the soil moved by splashing. Here, we present a new aspect of the splash phenomenon’s characterization the measurement of the sound pressure level and the sound energy of the wave that propagates in the air. The measurements were carried out for 10 consecutive water drop impacts on the soil surface. Three soils were tested (Endogleyic Umbrisol, Fluvic Endogleyic Cambisol and Haplic Chernozem) with four initial moisture levels (pressure heads: 0.1 kPa, 1 kPa, 3.16 kPa and 16 kPa). We found that the values of the sound pressure and sound wave energy were dependent on the particle size distribution of the soil, less dependent on the initial pressure head, and practically the same for subsequent water drops (from the first to the tenth drop). The highest sound pressure level (and the greatest variability) was for Endogleyic Umbrisol, which had the highest sand fraction content. The sound pressure for this soil increased from 29 dB to 42 dB with the next incidence of drops falling on the sample The smallest (and the lowest variability) was for Fluvic Endogleyic Cambisol which had the highest clay fraction. For all experiments the sound pressure level ranged from ~27 to ~42 dB and the energy emitted in the form of sound waves was within the range of 0.14 μJ to 5.26 μJ. This was from 0.03 to 1.07% of the energy of the incident drops.
Highlights
Soil is a very important element and is the basis of many ecosystems; protecting it and identifying the factors causing its degradation have been a topic of scientific research for some years
The meansquare value of the signal normalized to 40 ms was from 65Ã10−5 Pa to 25Ã10−4 Pa
The sound pressure levels of the accompanying the impact of the water drops on the soil surface for all the tested soils with different initial values of soil water potentials are shown in Fig 2 and S1 Table
Summary
Soil is a very important element and is the basis of many ecosystems; protecting it and identifying the factors causing its degradation have been a topic of scientific research for some years. The basis of life on Earth, may in certain circumstances contribute to environmental degradation, for example water erosion [1,2,3,4]. The first phase of water erosion is the splash, when a drop of water (rainfall) hits the soil surface [5]. Research into the splash phenomenon has been underway for many years, since a complete description is very important from the point of view of modelling water erosion in the context of eliminating this negative phenomenon, both for agriculture as well as for the safety of people (e.g., preventing mudslides).
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