The problems of wind erosion, sand movement and the like are oi vital importance to various engineering constructions in windstorm areas. For instance, quite a few segments of railway lines built anc designed to be constructed in Xinjiang, China are happen to be in very strong wind areas, where the percentage of windy days may be as high as 507o, while the wind speeds are frequently above 30m/s. Disastrous consequences of various kinds are reported every year. With respect to railway construction, the coverage of the rails by sand, the erosion of road embarkment by wind and even the overturn of the carriage by gust are among the examples of severe events. To design effective protection constructions is of direct practical significance. Presented in this paper are parts of the results of the laboratory experiments aimed at understanding of those processes responsible for the damages as well as estimating the functions and effectiveness of exsisting protection means. The qualitative agreement between the lab results obtained by using flow visualization and field observation are encouraging, showing the potential of flow visulization in solving some very complex practical problems.
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