COMPARISON OF ANALYTICAL SNOW PRESSURE MODELS

Two analytical models for snow creep and glide forces on structures in deep snow covers are compared theoretically and checked against field data. The results show that the formulations contained in the 1990 Sw iss guidelines for avalanche defence are incompatible with a continuum mechanical model based on linear creep and glide constitutive equatio ns. In addition, the formulations in the 1990 Swiss guidelines neglect the pressure from the component of body force in the slope-normal dir ection, which is an unnecessary simplification.