Avalanche Impact Pressures on Structures with Upstream Pile-Up/Accumulation Zones of Compacted Snow

Abstract. Existing methods to calculate snow avalanche impact pressures on rigid obstacles are based on the assumption of no upslope pile-up of snow behind the structure at impact. Here we develop a method to predict avalanche impact pressures that accounts for the compaction and accumulation process. We show why this process leads to large impact pressures even at low avalanche approach velocities. The induced pressure depends on the incoming avalanche flow density relative to the ultimate compaction density because this determines the avalanche braking distance and therefore the flow deceleration in the upstream direction. The pile-up/accumulation process induces two additional pressures: (1) the static pressure of the pile-up zone and (2) the tractive stresses operating on the shear planes interfacing the accumulated and still moving avalanche snow. We demonstrate the use of the model on two theoretical examples and one real case study. Avalanche mitigation in maritime regions, or regions undergoing climate change with increasing wet snow avalanche activity, should consider the forces caused by the pile-up/accumulation process in engineering design.