Snow drifting transport rates from water flume simulation

The drift formation process consists of some of the snow blowing towards a geometric irregularity being trapped. Analytical estimation of snow drift size requires both information on the transport rate for snow blowing from a source area, as well as information on the trapping efficiency of a particular geometric irregularity. Herein, laboratory simulation of the snow drifting process using the Rensselaer Water Flume is described. Similitude relations are presented which establish correspondence between the crushed walnut shell in water model of the snow in air prototype. It is shown that the scaled transport rates from the water flume models matches reasonably well with full scale transport rates. This suggests that water flume simulation can be used for quantitative evaluation of snow drifting.