Wind-blown Snow as a Water Resource
Research History

Research Methods - Small-scale Models
Once snow fence installation began on I-80, the next few winters showed clearly that snowdrifts behind the Wyoming Standard Plan fences scaled with fence height. Ron wondered how small we could go and still have the snowdrifts scaled accurately. Wind tunnel testing uses this sort of scaling, but finding materials that simulate drifting snow is difficult. Using real snow in wind tunnels requires large, expensive cold rooms.

Our first outdoor tests of drifting around small-scale models (1975) showed great promise. Accurate results depend on two conditions. The surface upwind of the model must be very smooth, and wind speed must be just above the threshold speed, where drifting starts (Tabler, 1980b). With a frozen lake for our surface, model scales as small as 1-to-30 gave accurately scaled snowdrifts. Full-scale snowdrifts built by an entire winter of blizzards could be simulated in about two hours.

The models help predict complicated drift patterns. One of the first models simulated an array of cinderblocks in a test of snowdrifts in rough surfaces. Wind is from the upper right, over Ron's shoulder. The wisps of drifting snow are typical of conditions when scaling is accurate.


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