The Characteristics of Wind-Blown Snow Hazards and an In-Situ Wind Tunnel Experiment Study on Snow Disaster Prevention along Railway

The Characteristics of Wind-Blown Snow Hazards and an In-Situ Wind Tunnel Experiment Study on Snow Disaster Prevention along Railway | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Characteristics of Wind-Blown Snow Hazards and an In-Situ Wind Tunnel Experiment Study on Snow Disaster Prevention along Railway Shumao Qiu, Guoce Liu, Hai Shi, Daming Lin, Mingzhou Bai, Jun Hou, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7027530/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 6 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Snow drift disasters pose a serious threat to the safe operation of railway engineering. Current research on the characteristics of railway snow drift disasters and the role of snow fences in their prevention often relies on indoor wind tunnel experiments, which overlook the influence of factors such as temperature, humidity, and climate on snow particle transport. To realistically reproduce the forces acting on snow particles and their movement patterns, this study, based on field monitoring results, employed a mobile wind tunnel simulation device and applied similarity criteria to conduct scaled outdoor wind tunnel tests on-site. The study examined the impact of the distance between snow fences and the railway subgrade on snow accumulation distribution. It also analyzed how different fence-subgrade distances affect wind fields and surface shear velocity around the subgrade. Furthermore, numerical simulations were used to investigate the influence of snow fence porosity, the distance between snow fences and the cutting slope, and fence height on wind and snow field distributions near the subgrade. Optimal design parameters for snow fences were proposed accordingly. The results show that outdoor in-situ wind tunnel experiments can realistically replicate field engineering environments (including appropriate temperature and humidity), allowing for more scientific testing of the geometry, snow particle saltation processes, particle trajectories, time scales, and deposition patterns during snow drift disasters affecting the subgrade. For railway sections prone to snow drift disasters, snow fences with 50% porosity, a height of 3 meters, and placed 50 meters from the cutting slope provide optimal protection. These findings offer theoretical support for the prevention and control of snow drift disasters and for the safety-oriented design of railway subgrade engineering in high-risk areas. Wind-blown snow disaster Railroad bed In-situ wind tunnel testing Snow particle saltation Snow fence protection Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major revisions 03 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 12 Aug, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 12 Aug, 2025 Editor invited by journal 12 Aug, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 03 Jul, 2025 First submitted to journal 03 Jul, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7027530","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":499394936,"identity":"6d2da5ce-a6bb-41cb-a26a-d993f7f951d2","order_by":0,"name":"Shumao Qiu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport: Ministry of Transport Research Institute of Highway","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shumao","middleName":"","lastName":"Qiu","suffix":""},{"id":499394937,"identity":"a22d5a72-6feb-480d-9efe-c319f01d16cc","order_by":1,"name":"Guoce 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Current research on the characteristics of railway snow drift disasters and the role of snow fences in their prevention often relies on indoor wind tunnel experiments, which overlook the influence of factors such as temperature, humidity, and climate on snow particle transport. To realistically reproduce the forces acting on snow particles and their movement patterns, this study, based on field monitoring results, employed a mobile wind tunnel simulation device and applied similarity criteria to conduct scaled outdoor wind tunnel tests on-site. The study examined the impact of the distance between snow fences and the railway subgrade on snow accumulation distribution. It also analyzed how different fence-subgrade distances affect wind fields and surface shear velocity around the subgrade. 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These findings offer theoretical support for the prevention and control of snow drift disasters and for the safety-oriented design of railway subgrade engineering in high-risk areas.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The Characteristics of Wind-Blown Snow Hazards and an In-Situ Wind Tunnel Experiment Study on Snow Disaster Prevention along Railway","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-08-20 08:06:31","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7027530/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Major revisions","date":"2025-10-03T07:04:14+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"","date":"2025-08-12T14:52:35+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-08-12T12:44:29+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"Natural Hazards","date":"2025-08-12T12:12:35+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-07-04T02:21:20+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Natural Hazards","date":"2025-07-03T09:26:32+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"natural-hazards","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nhaz","sideBox":"Learn more about [Natural Hazards](https://www.springer.com/journal/11069)","snPcode":"11069","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11069/3","title":"Natural Hazards","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"8cdd7b2f-8c6f-486e-b71c-a37ce26a4df9","owner":[],"postedDate":"August 20th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-08T10:00:12+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-08-20 08:06:31","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7027530","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7027530","identity":"rs-7027530","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}