Using the light weight deflectometer to assess groomed snow and ice surfaces

Wieder, Wendy L.; Shoop, Sally A.; Barna, Lynette A.

doi:10.21079/11681/32732

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The LWD is conventionally used for quality control and assurance of soil and aggregate layers in road construction. Using the LWD on snow surfaces is a new application for the device (Wieder et al 2019). As the applied load increases, the deflection will increase for a linear, elastic material.…”

Section: Light Weight Deflectometermentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

SnowMicroPenetrometer applications for winter vehicle mobility

Meehan¹,

Marshall²,

Deeb³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory provides technical support to military forces, one area being vehicle mobility modeling over snow. Many factors control vehicle performance, including the vehicle specifications and the land surface conditions. However, estimating snow macromechanical properties-such as elastic modulus, stiffness, and strength-is critical for understanding how effectively a vehicle will travel over snow-covered terrain. Vehicle instrumentation data and observations of the snow pack are necessary to improve the estimates of winter vehicle performance. Currently, snow depth and bulk snow density alone drive the available mobility performance index.This research deployed a SnowMicroPenetrometer (SMP) to measure hard, vehicle-compacted snow and groomed snow roads. Microstructural and micromechanical properties derived from the SMP data analysis were correlated to the Rammsonde penetrometer hardness, an established snow instrument, and to the shear-strength test vane and Light Weight Deflectometer, which are common in soil and aggregate layer assurance methods in road construction. Correlating these tools requires a new theory for inverting SMP signals for micromechanical properties that relaxes the assumption of low-density snow. Additionally, a scaling law appropriate to this type of hard snow is required to relate the SMP observations of the microscale and the macroscale properties.

show abstract

Section: Light Weight Deflectometermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Under these conditions, the snow was thought to be a rigid body and to behave elastically. Various geophone configurations were tested, yet only the central geophone recorded useable waveforms for analysis (Wieder et al 2019).…”

Section: Light Weight Deflectometermentioning

confidence: 99%

SnowMicroPenetrometer applications for winter vehicle mobility

Meehan¹,

Marshall²,

Deeb³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The LWD tests performed for this program typically had 16 drops per test point (Figure 8). More information of the procedures developed under BAEM for using the LWD on winter surfaces is presented in Wieder et al (2019) and Menke et al (2019).…”

Section: Light Weight Deflectometer (Lwd)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The LWD was also used on groomed snow but left large indentations on many of the groomed snow surfaces, indicating that it was continuing to compact the snow under the impact of the test sequence. Wieder et al (2019) analyzes the LWD more thoroughly.…”

Section: Strength Of Groomed Snow Surfacesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessment of field methods for measuring mechanical properties of snow

Shoop¹,

Wieder²,

Elder³

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Winter climates present a variety of surfaces that challenge vehicle mobility. Surfaces range from soft, virgin snow, to groomed snow and ice. This study evaluated the capabilities of various testing devices to measure the mechanical properties of winter surfaces. Concurrent satellite imagery supplemented in situ physical testing. The goals were (1) to find tests that most practically evaluate these winter surfaces for vehicle mobility and (2) to determine if imagery analysis correlates with mechanical properties, thus potentially allowing remote assessment of snow physical and mechanical characteristics.The test methods were typically useful for either virgin snow or groomed snow; no method worked well on all surfaces. Correlations between test devices were generally poor, but there were some important trends identified between (1) tests that measure the near-surface snow strength, (2) tests best suited for stronger snow, (3) the Clegg Impact Hammers and California Bearing Ratio, and (4) the optical imagery and surface drop cones. This study provides a rich dataset for assessing the current state of the art and future research needs for measurement and remote assessment of snow mechanical properties for vehicle mobility prediction.

show abstract