Research Article: A New Erosion Model For Wind-Induced Structural Vibrations
Research Article: A New Erosion Model For Wind-Induced Structural Vibrations
Research Article: A New Erosion Model For Wind-Induced Structural Vibrations
Research Article
A New Erosion Model for Wind-Induced Structural Vibrations
Received 16 March 2018; Revised 7 June 2018; Accepted 17 July 2018; Published 10 September 2018
Copyright © 2018 Keqin Yan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method has been widely utilized in simulating wind-induced snow drifting.
In the simulating process, the erosion flux is the main controlling factor which can be calculated by the product of erosion
coefficient and the differences between the flow stress and threshold stress. The erosion coefficient is often adopted as an empirical
constant which is believed not to change with time and space. However, in reality, we do need to consider the influences of snow
diameter, density, and wind speed on the erosion coefficient. In this technical note, a function of air density, sow particle density,
snow particle radius, and snow particle strength bond is proposed for the erosion coefficient. Based on an experiment study, the
effects of these parameters in erosion coefficient is analyzed and discussed. The probability distribution and value range of erosion
coefficient are also presented in this technical note. The applicability of this approach is also demonstrated in a numerical study for
predicting the snow distributions around a cube structure. The randomness of the structural vibrations is studied with details.
In these pioneering works, the erosion flux is found to be In most literature on the topic of wind-induced snow
dependent on the difference between the friction flow stress drifting, the snow surface erosion flux is calculated as follows
and threshold friction stress. The erosion flux can be cal- [20]:
culated based on the product of a coefficient c and the stress
qero � ρAu2∗ − u2∗t � Aero u2∗ − u2∗t , (1)
difference. The determination of the value of c is based on
field experiments. For instance, Schmidt [16] had once where Aero is the erosion coefficient, u∗ is the friction ve-
carried out experimental tests in a wind tunnel to investigate locity, and u∗t is the threshold friction velocity of snow
behavior of drifting spherical glass microbeads, which has particles. In most former works, the value of Aero is sug-
a diameter of 350 μm and density of 2.5 g/cm3. From the gested to be 0.0005 or 0.0007.
experiment, it was found that when flow friction velocity is Later on, Anderson analyzed the characteristics of
0.5 ms−1 , c has a value around 5 × 107 N−1·s−1 . It is also surface force and suggested that drifted snow particle
reported that the value of coefficient c increases as the number should be calculated as follows [9, 17]:
particle diameter decreases. For instance, Anderson [17]
carried out investigations with mineral particles in size of N � c τ − τ t , (2)
sand and found out that the value of c should be in orders of
105 N−1·s−1 . Therefore, the particle size is an influential factor where c is a coefficient characterized by the bond strength
in determining the value of c. In fact, there are more factors between snow particles which usually takes a value of
that need to be considered in the estimate of c. The authors 105 N−1·s−1 , τ represents the surface shear stress caused by
believe that it depends on snow conditions. flow, and τ t indicates the threshold shear stress. By com-
Since 1990s, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) theory bining Equations (1) and (2), the relationship between c and
has been brought into the simulation of snow drifting. Aero can be revealed.
Similar to the model of Andersen [16], Naaim [11] suggested The relationship between surface shear stress τ and
that the erosion flux of snow can be computed by the surface friction velocity u∗ can be described by the following
product of two factors. The first factor is the difference equation:
between the square of flow friction velocity and the square of ��
τ
threshold friction velocity. The second factor is a coefficient u∗ � , (3)
ρA, or so-called erosion coefficient Aero , which usually takes ρa
a value of 7 × 10−4 kg·m−3 . Because of its simplicity, many
research works have adopted this concept and taken this where ρa is the air density (the value usually adopts a value of
value for the erosion coefficient in their CFD simulations 1.25 kg·m−3 for normal air).
[18]. Very limited studies have been carried out to discuss By substituting Equation (3) into Equation (2), we can
about the value range of this coefficient. And studies on obtain the following equation for computing the snow
which factors can affect this coefficient are also lacking. Thus, particle number:
a comprehensive study on the attributes for an erosion N � ρa cu2∗ − u2∗t . (4)
coefficient is quite demanding.
The objective of this study was to investigate the value Once the snow particle number is estimated, it can then
range of erosion coefficient and to derive an expression of be used to calculate the erosion flux. Snow surface erosion
erosion coefficient in terms of the dominant factors. Re- flux qero is the drifted snow particle quantity in unit area per
alizing this, the paper is organized as follows. After the unit time. Since drifted snow contains snow particles with
introduction, Section 2 will first discuss the dominant factors different radius, qero can be expressed as a function of the
that are influential to erosion coefficient. Based on these particle sizes as the following equation:
factors, an expression of erosion coefficient is derived. After
this, the value range of erosion coefficient is investigated in
n n πd3pi
qero � Nρpi Vpi � ρpi ρa cu2∗ − u2∗ti
Section 3. The domain of the dominant factors is considered i�1 i�1
6
in this evaluation. The applicability of the developed ap- (5)
proach is further demonstrated in a case study carried out in n 4πr3pi
Section 4. The final conclusions drawn from this study are � ρpi ρa cu2∗ − u2∗ti ,
3
summarized in Section 5. i�1
Therefore, by substituting Equation (6) into Equation Therefore, based on these concerns, in the following part, we
(1), the equation for computing the erosion coefficient can be only investigate the value range of Aero at three selected
derived as follows: heights, namely, z � 0.02 m, 0.05 m, and 0.1 m.
n πd3pi n 4πr3pi To determine the value range of Aero , the calculation is
Aero � ρpi ρa c � ρpi ρa c. (7) split into four steps. Firstly, based on the surface height value
i�1
6 i�1
3 z (0.02 m, 0.05 m, and 0.1 m), the values of α and β are
calculated from Equations (10)–(12). Second, based on the
As can be observed from Equation (7), erosion co- values of α and β, the gamma distribution function for the
efficient Aero is a function of snow particle radius and snow particle radius is constructed. Thirdly, substitute the
density, coefficient c, and air density. It is a much more distribution function for snow particle radius f(rp ) into
complicated factor which should be quite random Equation (7). By utilizing the kernel smoothing density
depending on snow particle properties. In the following, the estimation, probability density distribution function of Aero
influence of different parameters on the erosion coefficient can be directly obtained (Figure 1(a)). Finally, the cumu-
in Equation (7) will be elucidated below. lative distribution function for erosion coefficient can be
derived based on the density function (Figure 1(b)). The
3. Value Range of Erosion Coefficient comparison between the investigated erosion coefficients at
different heights and the reported results in the literature is
3.1. Randomness of Snow Particle Radius. Wind-induced also illustrated in Figure 1. The estimated statistical pa-
snow drifting contains snow particles with different ra- rameter values in Figure 1 are recorded in Table 1.
dius. Budd [3] analyzed the particle radius distribution Figure 1(a) shows that the value of Aero concentrates at
through field investigation. He suggested that the drifted a value around 1.0 × 10−4. The probability of values of Aero
snow particle radius obeys two-parameter gamma distri- higher than 2.5 × 10−4 is very small. From the observation of
bution and gave out the distribution of snow radius along the Figure 1(b), we can see that the proposed distribution model
height Schmidt et al. [21, 22]. A specific formula for this has a larger prediction value of erosion coefficient compared
distribution function is given as follows Schmidt [21]: to the field experiment results. And this prediction tends to
r(α−1)
p e(−rp /β) decrease with the increase of surface height. In fact, the
frp � α , (8) model for erosion coefficient at a surface height of 0.05 m has
β Γ(α)
a perfect fit to the results reported in Schmidt [13]. However,
∞ on the other hand, results reported in Budd (1966) are more
Γ(α) � xα−1 exp(−x) dx, (9) closer to the model predictions for erosion coefficient at
0
a surface height of 0.1 m. This shows how the value of Aero
changes with the surface height while considering the
α � 4.08 + 12.6z, (10)
randomness in snow particle size.
where f(rp ) represents the probability density function of Besides the effects from randomness of snow particle
snow particle radius, α is the shape parameter of gamma radius, the erosion coefficient is also largely affected by the
distribution which is proportional to height z from snow snow density ρp and coefficient c. Here, a short parametric
surface, β is the scale parameter of gamma distribution, and study is also provided to investigate the influences from
Γ is a gamma distribution. these two parameters. In order to have a fair comparison, the
It can be seen that α and β are related to average snow surface height in this case is assumed to be unchanged. The
radius rm and height z. The relationship among these pa- values of the gamma distribution parameters are assumed to
rameters can be further described by the following be constant; for example, α � 5 and β � 20 are adopted in
equations: this case, Table 2. Based on Equation (7), a comparison of
r erosion coefficient for using different snow particle density
β � m, (11) and snow particle radius is shown in Figure 2. The compared
α
value is the 95 percentile in the distribution function of Aero .
It is seen from the figure that when ρp varies between
rm � 4.6 × 10−5 z−0.258 . (12)
300 kg·m−3and 900 kg·m−3 and rp varies between 50 μm and
It is easy to see from the equation that average snow 150 μm (common assumption), the value range of Aero is
particle radius rm will decrease as the height z from snow 1.96 × 10−4 ∼ 1.6 × 10−3 . The influence of c to Aero is also
surface increases. shown in Figure 3. It can be seen from Figure 3 that the
influence of coefficient c to erosion coefficient Aero is quite
significant which should not be ignored. However, we have
3.2. Randomness of Erosion Coefficient. From the above to point out the inherent relationship among snow particle
analysis, we can see the distribution of particle size is highly radius, density, and coefficient c is still not clear yet. In
depending on the height z from snow surface. Snow particle reality, these factors could be dependent on each other. The
radius varies inversely with z. Tabler’s work indicated that value range of the erosion coefficient could be enlarged
when the 10 m height wind speed is less than 12 m/s, sal- considering a positive dependence in the parameters.
tation is predominant transportation [23]. Bagnold [24] Therefore, the results presented here have its limitations. The
suggested that the height should be within 0.1 meter. results are assuming an independent relationship among the
4 Shock and Vibration
5000 1.0
0.9
4000 0.8
Cumulative distribution
Probability density
0.7
3000 0.6
0.5
2000 0.4
0.3
1000 0.2
0.1
0 0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Erosion coefficient Aero (×10–4) Erosion coefficient Aero (×10–4)
Empirical expression
z = 0.02m Schmidt [16] z = 0.02 m z = 0.1 m
z = 0.05m Budd [3] z = 0.05 m Field investigation
z = 0.1 m
(a) (b)
Figure 1: (a) Probability density distribution of Aero and (b) cumulative distribution of Aero .
considered parameters. It should be further validated 4.1. Numerical Model Analysis. In order to put in the model
through field investigation while considering all physical of erosion coefficient, the numerical model for the problem
reasons about the parameter interactions. is established first. The computational domain and meshing
are constructed at a model scale which is exactly corre-
sponding to the field investigation. The dimensions of the
4. Case Study: Prediction of Snow cube structure model are 0.2 × 0.2 × 0.2m3 (H � 0.2 m). The
Distribution around Cube Structure dimension of the simulation domain is 3.2× 1.2 × 1.2 m3 .
The meshing of the model includes 2096000 hexahedral
To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model for elements. The minimum volume of the elements is
erosion coefficient, this section will conduct a case study on 1.357 × 10−6 m3, while the maximum volume of the element
a real engineering snow problem. In this case study, the is 2.26 × 10−6 m3. The details of the meshing are illustrated in
objective is to predict the snow distribution around a cube Figure 4.
structure when there is snow drifting. As discussed in the The inlet of the simulation domain adopted velocity inlet
former section, erosion coefficient changes with different boundary. The wind-velocity profile inside the simulation
snow conditions. Therefore, herein, we considered two domain is defined based on the logarithmic law as follows:
different snow conditions, namely, fresh snow condition and
u∗ z + z0
old snow condition, in the analysis. The field experiment has u(z) � In , (13)
already been carried out by authors in 2009 in Harbin [7, 25]. k z0
These results will be used as a reference to compare with the where z0 is the roughness height which can be determined
numerical analysis in this paper. from the field experiment (in this case, z0 � 0.2 mm) and u∗
Shock and Vibration 5
0.01 0.01
Erosion coefficient Aero
1E– 4 1E –4
1E– 5 1E –5
300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150
Snow particle density ρp (kg·m–3) Snow particle radius rp (μm)
(a) (b)
Figure 2: (a) Relationship between Aero (95 percentile) and ρp and (b) relationship between Aero (95 percentile) and rp .
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 cube structure (incident profiles) are simulated and calcu-
0.1 0.1
lated (Figure 5).
The simulation domain is assumed to be symmetric
along the vertical and horizontal directions. The surface of
Erosion coefficient Aero
5H
10H
3H
5H 3H
(a) (b)
Figure 4: Perspective view and meshing of simulation domain and cube structure: (a) perspective view of the simulation domain and (b)
meshing around the cube structure.
Iu(z)
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
6 6
5 5
4 4
z/H
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10
u (m/s)
Iu(z) inlet u(z) inlet
Iu(z) cube u(z) cube
Figure 5: Profiles of the mean wind speed (u) and turbulent kinetic energy (K).
Relative
snow depth: 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
Wind direction
direction
Wind
(a) (b)
Figure 6: (a) Numerical simulation and (b) field investigation of snow distribution around a cube structure with fresh and dry snow.
it should be noticed that the snow condition has a significant coefficient is largely depending on the snow property pa-
influence on the snow distribution. This is mainly due to the rameters. It further proves that we should not use the same
differences in erosion coefficient. The value of erosion erosion coefficient for different snow conditions.
Shock and Vibration 7
Relative
snow depth: 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.9 1 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.6 1.7
Wind direction
direction
Wind
(a) (b)
Figure 7: (a) Numerical simulation and (b) field investigation of snow distribution around a cube structure with old and wind exposed
snow.
Table 4: Parameter values for simulating old and wind compressed snow.
Parameters r(μm) ρa (kg/m3 ) ρp (kg/m3 ) c(N−1·s−1 ) u∗t (m/s) t (s)
5
Value 150 1.25 400 10 0.35 3600
Conflicts of Interest [14] K. Yan, T. Cheng, and Y. Zhang, “A new method in measuring
the velocity profile surrounding a fence structure considering
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest snow effects,” Measurement, vol. 116, pp. 373–381, 2018.
regarding the publication of this paper. [15] R. A. Schmidt, “Estimates of threshold windspeed from
particle sizes in blowing snow,” Cold Regions Science and
Technology, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 187–193, 1981.
Acknowledgments [16] R. A. Schmidt, “Measuring particle size and snowfall intensity
in drifting snow,” Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 9,
This research was supported by the Innovation Foundation no. 2, pp. 121–129, 1984.
in Youth Science and Technology Team of Hubei Province [17] Y. Shao and A. Li, “Numerical modelling of saltation in the
(no. T201823), 2017 Provincial Teaching Reform Research atmospheric surface layer,” Boundary-Layer Meteorology,
Project (no. 2017A09), Hubei Polytechnic University Talent vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 199–225, 1999.
Introduction Project (no. 13xjz07R), Natural Science Fund [18] P.-A. Sundsbø, “Numerical simulations of wind deflection fins
of Hubei Province (2012FKC14201 and 2013CFC103), Sci- to control snow accumulation in building steps,” Journal of
entific Research Fund of Hubei Provincial Educational Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 74–76,
Department (no. D20134401), and Innovation Foundation pp. 543–552, 1998.
in Youth Team of Hubei Polytechnic University (no. Y008). [19] R. D. Tabler, Snow Fence Handbook: (Release 1.1), Tabler &
Associates, Niwot, CO, USA, 1988.
[20] T. K. Thiis, “Large scale studies of development of snowdrifts
References around buildings,” Journal of Wind Engineering and In-
dustrial Aerodynamics, vol. 91, no. 6, pp. 829–839, 2003.
[1] R. A. Bagnold, The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, [21] Y. Tominaga, A. Mochida, R. Yoshie et al., “AIJ guidelines for
Methuen, London, UK, 1941. practical applications of CFD to pedestrian wind environment
[2] J. H. M. Beyers, P. A. Sundsbø, and T. M. Harms, “Numerical around buildings,” Journal of Wind Engineering and In-
simulation of three-dimensional, transient snow drifting dustrial Aerodynamics, vol. 96, no. 10-11, pp. 1749–1761, 2008.
around a cube,” Journal of Wind Engineering & Industrial [22] Y. Tominaga, T. Okaze, and A. Mochida, “CFD modeling of
Aerodynamics, vol. 92, no. 9, pp. 725–747, 2004. snowdrift around a building: an overview of models and
[3] W. F. Budd, The Drifting of Nonuniform Snow Particles, evaluation of a new approach,” Building and Environment,
Studies in Antarctic Meteorology, American Geophysical vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 899–910, 2011.
Union, Washington, DC, USA, 2013. [23] T. Uematsu, T. Nakata, K. Takeuchi, Y. Arisawa, and
[4] P. Delpech, P. Palier, and J. Gandemer, “Snowdrifting sim- Y. Kaneda, “Three-dimensional numerical simulation of
ulation around Antarctic buildings,” Journal of Wind Engi- snowdrift,” Cold Regions Science and Technology, vol. 20, no. 1,
neering and Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 74–76, pp. 567–576, pp. 65–73, 1991.
1998. [24] B. R. White and J. C. Schulz, “Magnus effect in saltation,”
[5] R. S. Anderson and P. K. Haff, “Wind modification and bed Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol. 81, no. 3, pp. 497–512, 1977.
response during saltation of sand in air,” Acta Mechanica [25] A. Winstral, D. Marks, and R. Gurney, “Simulating wind-
Supplementum, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 21–51, 1991. affected snow accumulations at catchment to basin scales,”
[6] Y. Zhang, C. W. Kim, M. Beer, H. Dai, and C. G. Soares, Advances in Water Resources, vol. 55, pp. 64–79, 2013.
“Modeling multivariate ocean data using asymmetric cop-
ulas,” Coastal Engineering, vol. 135, pp. 91–111, 2018.
[7] Y. Shoa, “Numerical modelling of saltation in the atmospheric
surface layer boundary-layer meteorology layer,” Boundary-
Layer Meteorology, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 199–225, 1999.
[8] F. Naaim-Bouvet, H. Bellot, K. Nishimura et al., “Detection of
snowfall occurrence during blowing snow events using
photoelectric sensors,” Cold Regions Science and Technology,
vol. 106-107, pp. 11–21, 2014.
[9] F. Naaim-Bouvet and P. Mullenbach, “Field experiments on
“living” snow fences,” Annals of Glaciology, vol. 26,
pp. 217–220, 1998.
[10] M. Naaim, F. Naaim-Bouvet, and H. Martinez, “Numerical
simulation of drifting snow: erosion and deposition models,”
Annals of Glaciology, vol. 26, pp. 191–196, 1998.
[11] M. O’rourke, A. Degaetano, and J. D. Tokarczyk, “Snow
drifting transport rates from water flume simulation,” Journal
of Wind Engineering & Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 92,
no. 14-15, pp. 1245–1264, 2004.
[12] T. Okaze, Y. Takano, A. Mochida, and Y. Tominaga, “De-
velopment of a new k–ε model to reproduce the aerodynamic
effects of snow particles on a flow field,” Journal of Wind
Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, vol. 144, pp. 118–
124, 2015.
[13] R. Schmidt, “Vertical profiles of wind speed, snow concen-
tration, and humidity in blowing snow,” Boundary-Layer
Meteorology, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 223–246, 1982.
International Journal of
Rotating Advances in
Machinery Multimedia
The Scientific
Engineering
Journal of
Journal of
Hindawi
World Journal
Hindawi Publishing Corporation Hindawi
Sensors
Hindawi Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 http://www.hindawi.com
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
2013 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Journal of
Control Science
and Engineering
Advances in
Civil Engineering
Hindawi Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Journal of
Journal of Electrical and Computer
Robotics
Hindawi
Engineering
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
VLSI Design
Advances in
OptoElectronics
International Journal of
International Journal of
Modelling &
Simulation
Aerospace
Hindawi Volume 2018
Navigation and
Observation
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
in Engineering
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Engineering
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
Hindawi
www.hindawi.com www.hindawi.com Volume 2018
International Journal of
International Journal of Antennas and Active and Passive Advances in
Chemical Engineering Propagation Electronic Components Shock and Vibration Acoustics and Vibration
Hindawi Hindawi Hindawi Hindawi Hindawi
www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018 www.hindawi.com Volume 2018