Fabrication and study of laboratory scale rainfall simulator for soil erosion assessment
Rainfall simulator for soil erosion assessment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21921/jas.v8i2.7298Abstract
A rainfall simulator is an ideal tool for infiltration, soil erosion and other related research areas for replicating the process and characteristics of natural rainfall. The present paper describes the design of a comprehensive rainfall simulator. In this study a laboratory scale rainfall simulator is developed, which is particularly meant for the assessment of soil erosion at plot scale by considering various soil grain types, soil slope angles and surface exposures under different rainfall conditions. The Rainfall characteristics including the rainfall intensity and its spatial uniformity raindrop size and kinetic energy confirm that natural rainfall conditions are simulated with sufficient accuracy. The comparative measurement was carried out in a laboratory using rainfall simulator fabricated of 4 feet length and 2.5 feet width, where the applied slope angle is 3% with 39 mm/hr rainfall intensity. The runoff and soil loss for different samples were assessed by conducting number of trials. From the results it was found that the soil tilled and keeping it as a bare plot is more prone to runoff compared to soil without tilled and straw mulching has helped to reduce the runoff by 57% as compared to soil without mulching.
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