Large scale studies of development of snowdrifts around buildings

Snowdrift formation around buildings should be considered in snowy and windy areas to ensure proper accessibility and safety of buildings. Tools to model snow accumulation include wind tunnels and numerical simulation. These tools need to be carefully validated before they can be used for planning purposes. Important understanding for use in such validation is gathered in outdoor full-scale experiments. This study presents snowdrift accumulation data for two building geometries in two wind episodes. The effect of different wind velocities and snowdrifting intensities is documented. The rate of deposition of a leeward snowdrift was sensitive to the vertical snow concentration profile in that considerably more snow was deposited in such snowdrifts during wind episodes with higher transport rate from suspension mode. The deposition rate of lateral and upwind snowdrifts seems to be dependent on the presence of already deposited snowdrifts. Existing snowdrifts seem to smoothen the wind pattern around a building increasing the shear stress on the ground and decreasing the deposition rate. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.