doessoilcompositionhaveaninfluenceonthesandblasting（ doessoilcompositionhaveaninfluenceonthesandblasting）.docVIP

Does soil composition have an influence on the sandblasting process?? Alfaro S.C., J.L. Rajot, S. Lafon, M. Maillé, and A. Gaudichet LISA, Université de Paris Val de Marne 61, av. du Général de Gaulle, 94010, Créteil, Franceemail?: alfaro@lisa.univ-paris12.fr Abstract It is now well ascertained that fine dust emission by wind erosion is the result of two processes: saltation and sandblasting. In saltation, loose soil aggregates present at the soil surface can be set into motion by wind action provided the aerodynamic stress overcomes the forces that tend to maintain aggregates on the ground, namely, weight and interparticle forces. Numerous parameters are necessary to describe this process. Beside wind speed itself, they are mainly parameters describing the soil surface state: size distribution of loose soil aggregates, soil roughness length (including effects of non-erodible elements and soil ridging), humidity, and crusting. To a degree, all these soil characteristics depend on soil texture and composition. For example, after a rain strong crusts are more liable to form at the surface of fine textured soils than over coarser textured ones (Rajot et al., in press). Other factors, such as large contents in carbonates, in iron oxydes, or in organic matter that tend to promote soil cohesion and favor formation of larger aggregates or even clods, have an effect at the same time on aggregate mobility and on soil roughness. Thus soil composition has a direct effect on saltation.In the sandblasting process, a fraction of the terminal kinetic energy of the saltating aggregates is used to release fine particles (PM20) either from the aggregates themselves, or from the surface on which they impact. In the modeling of sandblasting, binding energies of the PM20 populations are crucial factors that condition at the same time the magnitude of fine dust emission fluxes and their size distribution (Alfaro et al., 1997). After combining the saltation and sandblasting mod