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Sheltering effect and snow deposition in arrays of vertical pillars

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Abstract

This paper aims to study of the efficiency of windbreaks composed by three dimensional arrays of pillars and used for snow deposition. Windbreaks and snow fences are commonly designed as two dimensional porous fences. This gives good efficiency, but might in some cases be regarded as architecturally boring. It also represents an obstruction to human traffic, and is sometimes difficult to integrate in the landscape architecture. The air flow around three different geometrical configurations of pillars is analyzed. The three arrangements include four and six rows of pillars and a sculptural representation of a Saami (indigenous people of northern Scandinavia) labyrinth. The numerical simulations of wind and snow deposition show that the flow pattern in the arrays is not very sensitive to wind speed. The four row array seems to produce snow drifts which are longer, and have the maximum height located further downwind than a common 50 % porous snow fence. The results of the windbreak, inspired by the Saami labyrinth, show that there is a large variation of the friction velocity within the labyrinth. Based on the results, such arrangement can be regarded as an alternative for landscape architects aiming to shelter a specific area. However, optimisation studies on internal structure of the size, orientation and shape of the pillars should be performed based on local wind climate. The methods outlined here seems suitable for such studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian University of Life Science, Ås, Norway

    Thomas Thiis

  2. ADAI-LAETA, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Thomas Thiis & Almerindo D. Ferreira

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  1. Thomas Thiis
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  2. Almerindo D. Ferreira
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Correspondence to Thomas Thiis.

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Thiis, T., Ferreira, A.D. Sheltering effect and snow deposition in arrays of vertical pillars. Environ Fluid Mech 15, 27–39 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-014-9356-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-014-9356-1

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