NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF DRIFTING SNOW AROUND A HIGHWAY IN A COLD REGION

Drifting snow is a frequent event in Arctic and subarctic area, threatening the long-term service performance of road engineering in cold regions. In this study, the two phase flow turbulent model and snow drifting model are adopted to describe snow drift phenomenon. The snow redistribution feature on the ground in highway is studied based on CFD simulation. We compare snow redistribution features in different highway structures, i.e., the embankment and the cutting. The simulation result shows that the structure type significantly influences the distribution characteristics of snow cover, which can be as a reference in engineering road design to avoid the snow damage.