Influence of Skew Wind on Snow Drifting and Snow Deposition Around a Ground Object

To clarify the mechanism of snow drifting and snow deposition caused by skew wind around the ground building, using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) method, the characteristic ambient flows around a cubic building under different wind directions were simulated and indicators for erosion and deposition in the prediction model were compared. The results indicate that wind directions () affect the boundary-layer separation and reattachment and determine the shear state of ground surface. In the x body-axis direction, extreme erosion positions move backward generally with the increasing of (045), and the changes of the extreme positions at the leeward side are more sensitive to than those at the windward side. The distributions of drifting snow densities are significantly influenced by the feature ambient flows and the redistribution effect caused by skew wind, which determine the surface deposition. In the y body-axis direction, the drifting snow densities near the ground at the inlet side are always larger than the one at the outlet side, and the concentration difference increases with (045). The increase of snow erosion and deposition rate in one direction leads to decrease in its orthogonal direction, and the skew wind can flexibly adjust the local snow coverage to quasi-dynamic equilibrium.