Characteristics of particle size for creeping and saltating sand grains in aeolian transport

Creep and saltation are the primary modes of surface transport involved in the fluid-like movement of aeolian sands. Although numerous studies have focused on saltation, few studies have focused on creep, primarily because of the experimental difficulty and the limited amount of theoretical information available on this process. Grain size and its distribution characteristics are key controls on the modes of sand movement and their transport masses. Based on a series of wind tunnel experiments, this paper presents new data regarding the saltation flux, obtained using a flat sampler, and on the creeping mass, obtained using a specifically designed bed trap, associated with four friction velocities (0·41, 0·47, 0·55 and 0·61 m sec−1). These data yielded information regarding creeping and saltating sand grains and their particle size characteristics at various heights, which led to the following conclusions: (i) the creeping masses increased as a power function (q = −1·02 + 14·19u*3) of friction wind velocities, with a correlation (R2) of 0·95; (ii) the flux of aeolian sand flow decreases exponentially with increasing height (q = a exp(–z/b)) and increases as a power function (q = −26·30 + 428·40 u*3) of the friction wind velocity; (iii) the particle size of creeping sand grains is ca 1·15 times of the mean diameter of salting sand grains at a height of 0 to 2 cm, which is 1·14 times of the mean diameter of sand grains in a bed; and (iv) the mean diameter of saltating sand grains decreases rapidly with increasing height whereas, while at a given height, the mean diameter of saltating sand grains is positively correlated with the friction wind velocity. Although these results require additional experimental validation, they provide new information for modelling of aeolian sand transport processes.