Study on the snow drifting modelling criteria in boundary layer wind tunnels

Abstract

The paper presents a study on modelling the wind drifting of the snow deposited on the flat roofs of buildings in wind tunnel. The physical model of snow drifting in wind tunnel simulating the urban exposure to wind action is not frequently reported in literature, but is justified by the serious damages under accidental important snow falls combined with strong wind actions on the roofs of various buildings. A uniform layer of snow deposited on the flat roof was exposed to wind action in order to obtain the drifting. The parameters involved in the modelling at reduced scale, with particles of glass beads, of the phenomenon of transportation of the snow from the roof were analysed, particularly the roughness length and the friction wind speed. A numerical simulation in ANSYS CFX program was developed in parallel, by which a more accurate visualization of the particularities of the wind flow over the roof was possible, in the specific areas where the phenomenon of snow transportation was more susceptible to occur. Modified roughness length and friction wind speed were determined through methods used in the literature, an attempt being made in this work to analyse the factors that influence their values.

Keywords

• snowdrift
• atmospheric boundary layer wind tunnel
• reduced scale modelling
• roughness length
• friction speed