TWO-WAY COUPLED EULERIAN-EULERIAN SIMULATIONS OF DRIFTING SNOW WITH VISCOUS TREATMENT OF THE SNOW PHASE

The objective of this research is to present a two-way coupled two-fluid model, which models the snow phase as an Eulerian continuum, similarly to the air phase. Besides properly accounting for two-way coupling in the saltation layer, this model is free from all equilibrium assumptions used in other one-way coupled approaches based on the transport of snow density method or the volume of fluid method. A purposely developed snow phase viscosity model for high rates of strain is used. This new formulation is validated against detailed experimental measurements of snow flux and airflow velocity profiles, at several measurement stations along the working section of a controlled wind tunnel drifting snow experiment. When polydispersity of the snow particle phase is taken into account, good agreement is found between the simulation results of snow flux and airflow velocity profiles.