Abstract: China is one of the most serious desertification countries in the world. With the development of western China, more and more new railway must be built across the desertification regions where the ecological environment is extremely vulnerable. Therefore, aeolian hazards become one of the main environmental problems threatening the railway operation safty in the region. In order to explore the influence of sand-driving wind on railway operation and provide theoretical basis and practical reference for the design and construction of the railway in high salinity and fine sand areas, the research was carried out on sand control measures in Xitieshan to North Hobson railway construction in Qinghai Province, China. Firstly, the railway is in the fine sand area with high salinity, and plants in this area are difficult to survive. Vegetation protection has no effect. So the combination of concrete retaining wall with plank and surface stone-checker is used to prevent and control the occurrence of wind and sand damage. The stone-checker is layout by 1 m×1 m, and the height of the sand control wall is 1.5 m. Secondly, according to sandstorm climate data, numerical simulation of finite element method for prevention system of wind drift sand is conducted by making use of CFX software. In the procedure, the motion law of sand flow is found. Research results show that the reasonable distance of retaining walls is 30 m. Finally, based on the field monitoring data in 2 years, this protection measure of wind drift sand is effective. But to do that protection measure effectively, a large amount of sand deposition behind retaining wall should be periodically cleaned up. And a cleaning cycle of 3 years is recommended according to the distributed regularity of sand behind retaining wall. The results in this paper can provide references for prevention and treatment of wind drift sand in railway construction in such areas.

Key words: high salinity, sand-driving wind, sand control wall, numerical simulation