A closed-form model for layered snow slabs
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Published:2023-04-05
Issue:4
Volume:17
Page:1475-1496
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ISSN:1994-0424
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Container-title:The Cryosphere
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language:en
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Short-container-title:The Cryosphere
Author:
Weißgraeber PhilippORCID, Rosendahl Philipp L.ORCID
Abstract
Abstract. We propose a closed-form analytical model for the mechanical behavior of stratified snow covers for the purpose of investigating and predicting the physical processes that lead to the formation of dry-snow slab avalanches.
We represent the system of a stratified snow slab covering a collapsible weak layer by a beam composed of an arbitrary number of layers supported by an anisotropic elastic foundation in a two-dimensional plane-strain model. The model makes use of laminate mechanics and provides slab deformations, stresses in the weak layer, and energy release rates of weak-layer anticracks in real time. The quantities can be used in failure models of avalanche release. The closed-form solution accounts for the layering-induced coupling of bending and extension in the slab and of shear and normal stresses in the weak layer. It is validated against experimentally recorded displacement fields and a comprehensive finite-element model indicating very good agreement.
We show that layered slabs cannot be homogenized into equivalent isotropic bodies and reveal the impact of layering on bridging with respect to weak-layer stresses and energy release rates.
It is demonstrated that inclined propagation saw tests allow for the determination of mixed-mode weak-layer fracture toughnesses. Our results suggest that such tests are dominated by mode I when cut upslope and comprise significant mode II contributions when cut downslope.
A Python implementation of the presented model is publicly available as part of the Weak Layer Anticrack Nucleation Model (WEAC) software package under https://github.com/2phi/weac (last access: 28 March 2023) and https://pypi.org/project/weac (last access: 28 March 2023, Rosendahl and Weißgraeber, 2022).
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Water Science and Technology
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