  Here we compare two extreme regimes of non-suspended fluid-mediated particle
transport, transport in light and heavy fluids ("saltation" and "bedload",
respectively), regarding their particle fluctuation energy balance. From direct
numerical simulations, we surprisingly find that the ratio between collisional
and fluid drag dissipation of fluctuation energy is significantly larger in
saltation than in bedload, even though the contribution of interparticle
collisions to transport of momentum and energy is much smaller in saltation due
to the low concentration of particles in the transport layer. We conclude that
the much higher frequency of high-energy particle-bed impacts ("splash") in
saltation is the cause for this counter-intuitive behavior. Moreover, from a
comparison of these simulations to Particle Tracking Velocimetry measurements
which we performed in a wind tunnel under steady transport of fine and coarse
sand, we find that turbulent fluctuations of the flow produce particle
fluctuation energy at an unexpectedly high rate in saltation even under
conditions for which the effects of turbulence are usually believed to be
small.
