Design of a rainfall simulator to measure erosion of reclaimed surfaces ...

• Main Authors: Sawatsky, Les, Dick, Wes, Cooper, Dave L., Keys, Marie
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Fort McMurray
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0042295; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0042295

Rainfall simulation is a useful tool in the analysis of soil erosion. The use of rainfall simulators has become more widespread with the development of automated instrumentation and control systems which offer a physically based system of predicting soil erosion. A variety of simulator designs have been used. This paper describes a rainfall simulator designed for analysis of erosion on steep (2.5H: 1V) reclaimed sand slopes at two oil sand mines near Fort McMurray, Alberta. The rainfall simulator applies artificial rain on a 225 m² test site divided into two side-by-side test plots. Most rainfall simulators have used a constant intensity of rainfall throughout a given simulation event. The rainfall simulator designed for this project can vary the rainfall application rate in fifteen discrete rainfall intensity increments. Therefore, it is capable of simulating a variety of non-uniform rainfall hyetographs. The rainfall simulator consists of a system of seven nozzles on each of 27 vertical support pipes. A ...