Abstract:
The soil and water loss caused by construction activities are increasing rapidly over the past few years. Soil erosion on new engineered landforms severely threatens the ecological security of construction sites and their surrounding areas. On the slope of the engineering accumulation, the soil erosion significantly depends on the platform inflow. It is necessary to quantitative analysis of the process of runoff and sediment production on the slope of engineering accumulation under the rainfall and inflow conditions. This can be helpful to clarify the characteristics of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation under multiple driving forces. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three driving forces (rainfall, inflow and their interactions) on the characteristics of soil erosion and morphological on the slope of engineering accumulation. The rainfall and inflow experiments were conducted on a field runoff plot (in 7 m long, 1 m wide and 0.5 m deep, and with the slope gradient of 36°) under five rainfall intensities (40, 50, 70, 100, 120 mm/h) and four inflow intensities (10, 15, 20, 25 L/min) conditions. The results showed that under the rainfall condition, the stage differential development was observed in the process of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation. Specifically, the runoff and sediment yield presented two different stages (fluctuation, stability) with time under the small and moderate rainfall conditions (40、50 and 70 mm/h), and the erosion morphology was discontinuous falling-sill, whereas, three different stages (fluctuation, stability, and violently) were observed under the heavy rainfall conditions (100 and 120 mm/h), and the erosion morphology was the rill. Under the inflow condition, there was a relatively stable development in the process of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation, and the erosion morphology was the rill. In contrast, under the combined effect of rainfall and inflow, a violent development was observed in the process of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation. Specifically, the runoff yield presented "multi-peak and valley" with time, and the fluctuation of sediment yield gradually increased with time. The erosion morphology was all erosion gullies, and developed violently. Furthermore, under the combined effect of rainfall and inflow, both the runoff and sediment volume on the slope increased, and the increment in sediment was greater than that in runoff. Compared with the rainfall condition, the runoff and sediment volume increased by 86%-629% and 86%-4914%, respectively, while compared with the inflow conditions, these two indicators increased by 12%-175% and 15%-505%, respectively. This finding demonstrates that the inflow, rainfall and a coupled effect between them have significant effects on the process of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation. This study can provide insightful implications to understand the characteristics and dynamic mechanism of soil erosion on the slope of engineering accumulation under complex hydrodynamic conditions.