Resumen
As part of a comprehensive environmental assessment of the Dun-Gel railway project located in Dunhuang city, Gansu Province, China, a wind tunnel experiment was proposed to predict surface shear stress changes on a sand dune when a bridge was built upstream it. The results show that the length of the wall shear stress shelter region of a bridge is about 10 times of the bridge height (H). In the cases that the interval of the bridge and sand dune (S) is less than 5 H, normalized wall shear stress on the windward crest is decreased from 1.75 (isolated dune) to 1.0 (S = 5.0 H, measured downwind bridge pier) and 1.5 (S = 5.0 H, measured in the middle line of two adjacent bridge piers). In addition, the mean surface shear stress in the downstream zone of the sand dune model is reduced by the bridge pier and is increased by the bridge desk. As for the fluctuation of surface shear stress (ζ" role="presentation">???
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) on the windward crest, ζ" role="presentation">???
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decreases from 1.3 (in the isolated dune case) to 1.2 (in the case S = 5.0 H, measured just downwind the pier) and increases from 1.3 (in the isolated dune case) to 1.6 (in the cases S = 5.0 H, in the middle of two adjacent piers). Taking the mean and fluctuation of surface shear stress into consideration together, we introduce a parameter ψ" role="presentation">???
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ranging from 0 to 1. A low value indicates deposition and a high value indicates erosion. On the windward slope, the value of ψ" role="presentation">???
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increases with height (from 0 at toe to 0.98 at crest). However, in the cases of S = 1.5 H, ψ" role="presentation">???
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is decreased by the bridge in the lower part of the sand dune at y = 0 and is increased at y = L/2 compared with the isolated dune case. In other cases, the change of ψ" role="presentation">???
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on the windward slope is not as prominent as in the case of S = 1.5 H. Downstream the sand dune, erosion starts in a point that exists between x = 10 H and 15 H in all cases.