Similarity Study on Snowdrift Wind Tunnel Test

Weihua Wang, Haili Liao, Mingshui Li, Hanjie Huang

1School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China 2China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center, Mianyang, China.
China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center, Mianyang, China.
School of Civil Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China.

DOI: 10.4236/ojce.2013.33B003                

Abstract

The model for snowdrift wind tunnel test needs to be similar with the prototype. Based on detailed analysis in aspects of geometry, kinematics and dynamics, the major similarity parameters that need to be satisfied are gained. The contradiction between the Reynolds number and Froude number as well as the problem of time scale is introduced, and the selections of the model parameters are specified. Lastly, an example of snowdrift wind tunnel test by adoption of quartz sand as the model of snow grains is presented. The flow field and the snow distributions on a typical stepped roof were investigated. The results show that the flow filed characters are in good agreement with the field observations, and the stepped roof snow depth distributions are basically consistent with the observation results.

Keywords

Similarity Parameters; Wind Tunnel Test; Snowdrift; Roof

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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