Development of numerical avalanche model and its application for designing defense structures

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24651205
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Natural disaster science
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: KIMURA Ichiro 北海道大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (60225026)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHIMIZU Yasuyuki 北海道大学, 大学院工学研究院, 教授 (20261331)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): HIRASHIMA Hiroyuki 独立行政法人防災科学技術研究所, 雪氷防災研究センター, 主任研究員 (00425513)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 雪崩 / 雪氷災害 / 数値解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The numerical snow avalanche model for simulating the dynamic behavior of avalanche was developed. The present model was applied to several kinds of benchmarks as well as real scale phenomena to validate the accuracy and efficiency. The numerical results showed that the present model can capture well the fundamental characteristics of slow avalanche phenomena, such as, forming shock waves, entrainment of bed snow, etc. It is also be pointed out that the present model has enough quantitative accuracy in order to consider effective protection methods. We also performed the field experiments to consider effective energy dissipater for protection from avalanches. Through the comparison between the present numerical and experimental results, we proposed effective design for avalanche protection facilities.

Free Research Field

水理学　数値流体力学