Mathematical modeling of powder-snow avalanche flows

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new mathematical model for simulating powder-snow avalanches, focusing on aerosol regime interactions and obstacle impacts, using a fully implicit finite volume scheme for better practical understanding.

Contribution

The study develops a novel incompressible two-fluid model with mass diffusion for avalanche simulation, capable of handling arbitrary density ratios and providing detailed flow insights.

Findings

Successful simulation of avalanche flow fields

Effective modeling of obstacle interactions

Potential application to real-world avalanche risk assessment

Abstract

Powder-snow avalanches are violent natural disasters which represent a major risk for infrastructures and populations in mountain regions. In this study we present a novel model for the simulation of avalanches in the aerosol regime. The second scope of this study is to get more insight into the interaction process between an avalanche and a rigid obstacle. An incompressible model of two miscible fluids can be successfully employed in this type of problems. We allow for mass diffusion between two phases according to the Fick's law. The governing equations are discretized with a contemporary fully implicit finite volume scheme. The solver is able to deal with arbitrary density ratios. Several numerical results are presented. Volume fraction, velocity and pressure fields are presented and discussed. Finally we point out how this methodology can be used for practical problems.