Sediment transport of sand particles by wind is one of the main processes leading to desertification in arid regions, which severely impairs the ability of mankind to produce and live by drifting sand into settlements. Optimization designs of artificial facilities have lately attracted extensive interest for human settlement systems in deserts because of their acceptable protection effect, convenience of implementation, and low material cost. However, the complexity of a settlement system poses challenges concerning finding suitable materials, artificial facilities, and optimization designs for sand deposition protection. In an effort to overcome these challenges, we propose a settlement system built with brick, solar panel, and building arrays to meet the basic needs of human settlements in arid regions while preventing wind-sand disasters. The wind flow and movement characteristics of sand particles in the brick, panel, and building arrays were calculated using computational fluid dynamics and discrete phase model. The performance of three types of arrays in wind-sand flow in terms of decreasing the wind velocity and sand-particle invasion distance was evaluated. The results show that the wind velocity near the surface and the sand invasion distance were significantly decreased in the space between the brick arrays through properly selected vertical size and interspaces, indicating that the brick arrays have an impressive sand fixing and blocking performance; their effective protection distance was 3–4 m. The building arrays increased the near-surface wind velocity among buildings, resulting in less deposition of sand particles. The solar panel arrays were similar to the building arrays in most cases, but the deposition of sand particles on solar panels exerted a negative effect on energy utilization efficiency. Therefore, taking the optimal configuration of the settlement system into consideration, this study concludes that (1) brick arrays, which were proven effective in preventing sand particles, must be arranged in an upwind area; (2) solar panel arrays could accelerate the wind flow, so they are best to be arranged at the place where sand particles deposited easily; and (3) building arrays present a better arrangement in downwind areas.

风中沙粒的泥沙输送是导致干旱地区荒漠化的主要过程之一，这严重损害了人类通过将沙粒流向定居点而生产和生活的能力。人工设施的优化设计由于其可接受的保护效果，实施的便利性以及较低的材料成本，最近引起了沙漠中人类住区系统的广泛兴趣。但是，沉降系统的复杂性给寻找合适的材料，人工设施以及防砂沉积保护的优化设计带来了挑战。为了克服这些挑战，我们提出了一种由砖块，太阳能电池板和建筑物阵列构成的定居系统，以满足干旱地区人类住区的基本需求，同时防止风沙灾害。使用计算流体动力学和离散相模型计算了砖，面板和建筑物阵列中沙粒的风流和运动特征。评估了三种类型的风沙流阵列在降低风速和减小沙粒侵入距离方面的性能。结果表明，表面和砂侵入距离附近的风速在通过适当地选择垂直尺寸和间隙砖阵列之间的空间被显著减少，表明砖阵列具有令人印象深刻的砂固定和阻塞性能; 它们的有效保护距离为3-4 m。建筑物阵列提高了建筑物之间的近地表风速，从而减少了沙粒的沉积。在大多数情况下，太阳能电池板阵列与建筑物阵列相似，但在太阳能电池板上的沙粒沉积会对能量利用效率产生负面影响。因此，考虑到沉降系统的最佳配置，本研究得出的结论是：（1）必须在上风区域布置被证明可有效防止沙粒的砖排；（2）太阳能电池板阵列可以加快风速，因此最好将其布置在容易沉积沙粒的地方；（3）建筑物阵列在顺风地区表现出更好的布置。这项研究得出的结论是：（1）必须在上风区域布置被证明有效防止沙粒的砖块阵列；（2）太阳能电池板阵列可以加快风速，因此最好将其布置在容易沉积沙粒的地方；（3）建筑物阵列在顺风地区表现出更好的布置。这项研究得出的结论是：（1）必须在上风区域布置被证明有效防止沙粒的砖块阵列；（2）太阳能电池板阵列可以加快风速，因此最好将其布置在容易沉积沙粒的地方；（3）建筑物阵列在顺风地区表现出更好的布置。