Investigations into the design of sand control fence for Gobi buildings

Wind-blown sand disasters, as an environmental problem, have great impact on human activities. Sand fence has been recognized as an efficiency technology in anti-desertification engineering and is wildly applied to protect highways and railways around the desert. But few people study its protection to Gobi buildings, which may also suffer from sand disaster. To study its protection to Gobi buildings, we systemically investigate the threedimensional structure of wind field and sand distribution around sand fence for buildings by Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations and wind-tunnel experiments. The dependencies of sand-prevention efficiency on fence height, porosity, inclined slat angle and wind speed are proposed respectively. An optimal height of sand fence is suggested to be 2.0 m-2.5 m, and an optimal porosity is 10%-15%, by synthetically considering the factors of sand prevention efficiency and construction cost; the slat angles of inclined fence is recommended as 135 degrees-150 degrees for maximizing the sand sedimentation on the windward side of fence.

Automated summary

Wind-blown sand disasters have a significant impact on human activities, and sand fences are recognized as an efficient technology to protect against desertification. However, there is limited research on the protection of Gobi buildings from sand disasters. Through Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations and wind-tunnel experiments, the optimal height, porosity, and inclined slat angle of sand fences for Gobi buildings are proposed to maximize sand prevention efficiency while considering construction cost.