DESIGN CRITERIA FOR ROADS IN SNOW-DRIFTING AREAS

During strong winds, drifting snow causes problems on roads in many harsh winter climate countries. Increased snow-removal costs, reduced access and safety problems are typical results of excessive snow drift sedimentation and bad visibility along many roads in exposed regions. This paper introduces some of the results for a research program including numerical experiments and field surveys. The research was done to enhance knowledge of drifting snow behavior on roads and also to develop design criteria for better road and highway construction in mountainous areas and other areas where frequent snowfall and strong winds occur. The research is based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and filed measurements. Simulation of wind flow are compared to snow cover surveys from roads in Ireland and Norway and the results have been used to develop recommendations for engineers. An important goal for this study has been to use CFD to develop geometric relationships that can be applied in road planning. The results presented in the paper include guidelines for the evaluating the efficiency of natural snow deposition zones and their equilibrium snowdrift capacity.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Conference Proceedings available on CD-ROM.
• Corporate Authors:

  World Road Association (PIARC)

  La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
  F-92055 La Defense Cedex,   France 
• Authors:
  • Thordarson, S
  • Norem, H
• Conference:
  • New Challenges for Winter Road Service. XIth International Winter Road Congress
  • Location: Sapporo, Japan
  • Date: 2002-1-28 to 2002-1-31
• Publication Date: 2002

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 10p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Highway safety; Pavement design; Snowdrifts; Visibility; Wind; Winter
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Maintenance and Preservation; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I62: Winter Maintenance;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00925122
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 3 2002 12:00AM