Modeling erosion from erosion features on gravel roads: The rill model

Abstract

Abstract— Rills on roads are active features which gully up bigger parts of the roads causing road-size reduction, flooding among others. Such roads are top-listed for accumulation of wealth for most developing countries. A model is constructed to determine the formation and effects of gravel road rills using various sediment modeling facts like shear stress, discharge rates, and other road-design related facts. It was also comparable to those of Exner and Nearing with regard to erosion and deposition characteristics. Various experiments like sieve-analysis, measurement of drainage-rill sizes, hydrometer analysis, were considered for model formulation and evaluation. A numerical example using cross-sectional field and laboratory data was finally used to test it. Key findings of this paper included a rill model that estimates the specific area affected by rilling, the high flow velocities and discharge on road drainage surfaces. The information extracted from this paper shall help road construction and maintenance designs.