Characteristics of wind-blown sand and dynamic environment in the section of Wudaoliang-Tuotuo River along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Based on the detailed wind data and in situ observation of wind-blown sand in the section of Wudaoliang-Tuotuo River along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the dynamic environment of sand flow, involving sand-laden wind, drift potential, sand transport and their time variation were investigated. The prevailing direction of sand-laden wind obviously varies seasonally. Sand-laden wind presents unidirectional characteristics from winter to the next spring and its prevailing direction is westerly. In summer, northeasterly wind begins to increase and lasts for a short period. The annual drift potential along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway reaches 970.54 Vector Units (VU), which belongs to a high-energy wind environment. Directional variability of wind regime (RDP/DP, RDP is the resultant drift potential (RDP) and DP is drift potential) is 0.88. The RDP is 854.31VU in the direction of 89.7A degrees, which indicates that westerly sand-laden wind prevails in this region. Sand transport is well correlated to the frequency of sand-laden wind and increases with drift potential logarithmically.