Designing and construction of a portable rainfall simulator

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Water & Soil Conservation Dep., SCWMRI

Abstract

Rain simulation is one of the important methods for measuring hydrological and soil erosion processes. Rapid evaluation and high repeatability capabilities are the advantages of using the rainfall simulator. The weight of constructed simulator is approximately 20 kg, can simulate rainfall at 28 to 95 mm / h intensity on the plot area of one up to three square meters. The droplet diameter was measured using flour pellet method and stain method. Flour pellet method was selected due to higher determination factor, and then its results were applied to continue the study. The highest uniformity coefficient (96.6%) was obtained at the intensity of 8.3 cm/h and the lowest coefficient (90.6%) was obtained at 9.5 cm/h intensity, which is higher than the acceptable level. The average diameter of the droplets is from 0.97 mm at intensity of 2.8 cm/h to 1.22 mm at 7.1 cm/ h, which lies within the range of natural precipitation. Also, the range of velocity variations is from 3.58 to 4.21 m/s. According to the mentioned specifications, a suitable portable rainfall simulator was designed with acceptable accuracy for runoff, permeability, erosion and sedimentation studies in field.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Sawatsky l, Dick w, Cooper D, Keys M. Design of a rainfall simulator to measure erosion of reclaimed surface, earth and environmental. AGRA Earth and Environmental Limited, The 20th annual mine reclamation symposium.1996.
[2]. Sheridan GJ, Noske PJ, Lane P NJ, Christopher S B. Using rainfall simulation and site measurements to predict annual interrill erodibility and phosphorus generation rates from unsealed forest roads: Validation against in-situ erosion measurements. Catena. 2008; 73: 49–62.
[3]. Mahmoodabadi M and Arabkhedri M. Rainfall and Erosion Simulation Laboratory Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute: Characteristics, Capabilities and Applications. 2011; 1(3): 1-11.( In Persian)
[4]. Navas EL, Alberto E, Maehin J and Galhn Z A. Design and operation of a rainfall simulator for field studies of runoff and soil erosion, Soil technology. 1990; 3: 385-397.
[5]. Francisco J P, Latorre R, Castro L and Delgado A. A comparison of two variable intensity rainfall simulators for runoff studies. Soil and Tillage Research. 2010; 107: 11–16.
[6]. Jahanbakhshi F, Ekhtesasi MR, Talebi A and Piri M. Investigation of permeability of three geological formations in different precipitation intensities using rainfall simulator (Case study: Shirkooh Yazd). 11th national conference on watershed management sciences and engineering of Iran. 2016; April 19-21. Yasooj. Iran. (In Persian)
[7]. Abdollahi Z, Sadeghi SHR and Khaledi Darvishan AV. Designing, manufacturing and testing rainfall simulator nozzles, Journal of Water and Soil Conservation. 2013; 20(6): 67-86. (In Persian)
 [8]. Iserloh T, Fister W, Seeger M, Willger H and Ries JB. A small portable rainfall simulator for reproducible experiments on soil erosion, Soil & Tillage Research. 2012; 124: 131–137.
[9]. Floyd CN. A mobile rainfalls for small plot field experiments. Journal agriculture engineering research. 1981; 26:307-314.
[10]. Poesen J, Ingelmo S. F and Mucher H.. The hydrological response of soil surfaces to rainfall as affected by cover and position of rock fragments in the top layer. Earth Surf. Process Landforms. 1990; 15: 653-671.
[11]. Bhardwaj A and Singh R. Development of a portable rainfall simulator infiltrometer for infiltration, runoff and erosion studies, Agricultural Water Management. 1992; 22: 235-248.
[12]. Cerda A, Ibanez S, Cavlo A. Design and operation of a small and portable rainfall simulator for rugged terrain. Soil Technol. 1997; 11: 163–170.
[13]. Victora K C A and Fiori H. Soil erodibility assessments with simulated rainfall and with the USLE nomograph in soil from Uruguay.Proceeding of 16th World Congress of Soil Science, Montpellier, France. 1998.
[14]. Veihe A, Rey J, Quinton J N, Strauss P, Sancho F M and Somarriba M. Modeling of event- based soil erosion in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Mexico: evaluation of the EUROSEM model. Catena. 2001; 44: 187-203.
[15]. Abudi I, Carmi G and Berliner P. Rainfall simulator for field runoff studies, Journal of Hydrology. 2012; 454: 76–81.
[16]. Iserloh T, Ries JB, Arnáez J, Boix-Fayos C, Butzen V and et al. European small portable rainfall simulators: A comparison of rainfall characteristics. Catena. 2013; 110 : 100–112.
[17]. Corona R, Wilson T, Addrio L, Porco F, Montadlo N and Albertson J. On the estimation of surface runoff through a new plot scale rainfall simulator in Sardinia, Italy. Procedia Environmental Sciences 2013; 19: 875 – 884.
[18]. Lora M, Camporese M and Salandin P. Design and performance of a nozzle-type rainfall simulator for landslide triggering experiments. Catena. 2016; 140: 77–89.
[19]. Al Ali S, Bonhomme C, Dubois P and Chebbo G. Investigation of the wash-off process using an innovative portable rainfall simulator allowing continuous monitoring of flow and turbidity at the urban surface outlet. Science of the Total Environment. 2017; 609: 17–26.
[20]. Khaledi Darvishan A, Homayonfar V and Sadeghi SHR. Designing, construction and calibration of a portable rainfall simulator for field runoff and soil erosion studies. Watershed Sciences and Engineering of Iran. 2016; 10(34): 105-112. (In Persian)
 
[21]. Hignett CT, Gusli S, Cass A, Besz W. An automated laboratory rainfall simulation system with controlled rainfall intensity, raindrop energy and soil drainage. Soil Technol. 1995; 8: 31–42.
[22]. Ahuja LR, Swartzendruber D. Flow through Crusted Soils: Analytical and Numerical Approaches Lewis. 2000; p. 93.
[23]. Solomon K. Variability of sprinkler coefficient of uniformity test results. Trans. ASAE. 1979; 22: 1078-1080.
[24]. Shangzhi S, Hegao G, Wenmao G, Chenghuan N and Jingquan S. Large- scale movable field rainfall simulator. Forth international symposium on river sedimentation. Beijing, China. 1989; 184-91.
[25]. Panneton B, Roy P M and Thereiault R. A droplet generator producing narrow drop size spectra. Trans. ASAE. 1991; 34(6): 2355-2362.
[26]. Carter Cade E, Greer J D, Braud H J and Floy J M. Raindrop characteristics in south central United States. Trans. ASAE. 1974; 1033-1037.
[27]. Khaledian H. Investigating the rainfall characteristics in relation to erosion in the west of Iran. The final report of the research project. Soil conservation and watershed research institute. 2003. (In Persian)
[28]. Eigel JD and Moore ID. A simplified technique for measuring raindrop size and distribution. Transactions of the ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers), 1983; 3: 1079-1084.
[29]. Ghadiri H and Payne D. Raindrop impact stress and the breakdown of soil crumbs. Soil Science, 1997; 28: 247-258.
[30]. Sadeghi S H R, Abdollahi Z and Khaledi Darvishan A. Experimental comparison of some techniques for estimating natural raindrop size distribution on the south coast of the Caspian Sea, Iran. Hydrological Sciences Journal. 2013; 58(6): 1374-1382.
[31]. Arabkhedri M, Mahmoodabadi M, Rouhipour H, Heidarian SA, Lotfollahzade D and et al. Study on Rain Characteristics and Calibration of Rainfall Simulator of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Center. Final report of research plan. Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture Research and Education Organization Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute. 2008. 73p. (in Persian)
[32]. Gunn R and Kinzer G D. The terminal velocity of fall for water droplets in stagnant air, Journal of meteorology. 1949; 6: 243-248
[33]. Assouline S, El Idrissi A, Persoons E. Modeling the physical characteristics of simulated rainfall: a comparison with natural rainfall. Journal of Hydrology. 1997; 196: 336–347.
Iranian journal of Ecohydrology
Volume 5, Issue 1
April 2018
Pages 229-239

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 22 August 2017
  • Revise Date: 17 September 2017
  • Accept Date: 04 January 2018
  • First Publish Date: 21 March 2018
  • Publish Date: 21 March 2018

Share

How to cite

Statistics