The influences of temperature and normal load on the shear strength of snow consisting of precipitation particles

Abstract

An experiment using artificial snow was conducted to clarify the influences of temperature and normal load on temporal variations in the shear strength of snow. Artificial snow consisting of dendritic crystals was allowed to accumulate to ∼60 cm depth for the experiment. The shear strength, temperature and weight of the overlying snow were measured at three different depths in the accumulated snow. For the measurement of shear strength, the shear frame index (SFI) was found using a shear frame by placing weights with different masses on the snow contained within the frame. The measured SFI values were treated with the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion to find the snow cohesion factor C and the internal friction factor tan φ. The results highlighted similar trends for SFI and C values by which their rate of increase over time was greater with higher snow temperatures and normal load caused by overlying snow. This indicates that C contributes significantly to increased SFI values. tan φdecreased over time with higher snow temperatures and increased with lower snow temperatures. In low-temperature conditions, in particular, it is likely that snow crystals are compacted but maintain their dendritic morphology. © 2013 Publishing Technology.