New Experimental Investigation into the Angle of Repose of Snow

Abstract

Knowledge of the angle of repose of snow is significant for estimation of the rheological behavior of snow avalanches. However, at present, no comprehensive database or empirical equation is available to quantify the angle of repose for different types of snow. In this study, an attempt has been made to fill this gap by carrying out new measurements on the angle of repose of natural sieved and unsieved snow at a field research station located in Himachal Pradesh, India. The measurements were carried out using a locally developed experimental setup for the measurement of the angle of repose of snow. Analysis of the data indicates that the angle of repose of snow is determined by the snow density, temperature, and shape of the snow grains. Further, based on the data of the experiments presented in this work, a density-based empirical relation has been proposed for the estimation of angle of repose of snow.