Outdoor Test of Wind-Drifted Snow Distribution around a Cube

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an outdoor investigation of wind-drifted snow distribution around a cube. The test was performed in a simple outdoor wind tunnel at Harbin in January 2009. Velocity distribution around the cube and pressure coefficient on the cube surfaces are also simulated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The simulation is based on homogenous two-phase flow theory, where the flow field is predicted by solving Navier-Stokes equations for transient, incompressible viscous flow. The inlet profiles of the simulation adopted data got from wind tunnel. Comparison between the test result and that of simulation shows that velocity is closely related to the snow distribution.

Test Investigation of Velocity Distribution Considering Snow Particles Participating

“…The expressions of mean velocity profiles and turbulence intensity are proposed from the data get by the wind rake. These profiles are adopted as inlet profiles in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) calculation [5]. The characteristics of velocity distribution of simulation from CFD match well with that of wind-drifted snow distribution got from the outdoor test in Haerbin.…”