Wind-sand tunnel experiment on the windblown sand transport and sedimentation over a two-dimensional sinusoidal hill

Turbulent wind flow over hilly terrains has been extensively investigated in the scientific literature and main findings have been included in technical standards. In particular, turbulent wind flow over nominally two-dimensional hills is often adopted as a benchmark to investigate wind turbine siting, estimate wind loading, and dispersion of particles transported by the wind, such as atmospheric pollutants, wind-driven rain, windblown snow. Windblown sand transport affects human-built structures and natural ecosystems in sandy desert and coastal regions, such as transport infrastructures and coastal sand dunes. Windblown sand transport taking place around any kind of obstacle is rarely in equilibrium conditions. As a result, the modelling of windblown sand transport over complex orographies is fundamental, even if seldomly investigated. In this study, the authors present a wind-sand tunnel test campaign carried out on a nominally two-dimensional sinusoidal hill. A first test is carried out on a flat sand fetch without any obstacle to assess sand transport in open field conditions. Then, a second test is carried out on the hill model to assess the sand flux overcoming the hill and the morphodynamic evolution of the sand sedimenting over its upwind slope. Finally, obtained results are condensed into a dimensionless parameter describing its sedimentation capability and compared with values resulting from other nominally two-dimensional obstacles from the literature.