Excerpt from Numerical Simulation of Snow Avalanche Flow Many homes, lodges, and other structures are now being built in steep, snow-covered areas of the western U. S. Snow avalanches are a threat at many of these sites. Land managers, county commissioners, and other local authorities need information on the location of avalanche paths and the frequency and intensity of avalanches to safeguard the public and still permit orderly growth of mountain communities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Numerical Simulation of Snow Avalanche Impact on Structures This paper presents results from two analyses of structures impacted by avalanches at various speeds. Forces on the structures are presented in graphical form, so that design specialists may refer to these data to estimate forces and pressures for structures that correspond to those treated in the report. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Avalanches, mudflows and landslides are common and natural phenomena that occur in mountainous regions. With an emphasis on snow avalanches, this book provides a survey and discussion about the motion of avalanche-like flows from initiation to run out. An important aspect of this book is the formulation and investigation of a simple but appropriate continuum mechanical model for the realistic prediction of geophysical flows of granular material.

Geomaterials exhibit complex but rich mechanical behaviour with a variety of failure modes ranging from diffuse to localized deformation depending on stress, density, microstructure, and loading conditions. These failure modes are a result of an instability of material and/or geometric nature that can be studied within the framework of bifurcation theory. Degradation is another related phenomenon arising from cyclic loading, ageing, weathering, chemical attack, and capillary effects, among others. The methodology of analyzing the various types of instabilities is crucial in the adequate modelling and safe design of numerous problems in geomechanics. The present volume contains a sampling of enlarged versions of papers presented at the International Workshop on Bifurcation and Degradations in Geomaterials (IWBDG 2008) held in Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, May 28-31, 2008. These papers capture the state-of-the-art in the specialized field of geomechanics and contemporary approaches to solving the central issue of failure. Some engineering applications are presented in the areas of energy resource extraction and soil-machine interaction.

The application of numerical methods to model snow avalanches is of vital importance since in recent years there has been a notable increase in people exposed to risk areas due to the practice of mountain sports. The creation of tools capable of forecasting and simulating avalanches represents a step forward in minimizing the personal and economic costs caused by these natural disasters. With the collaboration of the Institut Flumen and the hydraulic modelling software Iber, it has been possible to develop a valid application for the simulation of snow avalanches using finite volumes. On account of this, the friction terms of the Saint Venant equations were previously modified to be valid for describing the behaviour of these non-Newtonian fluids. This Thesis analyses the parameters of friction, cohesion and slope to study how they affect the descent of avalanches. In addition, the numerical scheme is extended by incorporating the parameter of entrainment and four equations are developed that depend, independently, on velocity, snow height and bed shear stress. Thenceforth, the model is calibrated, and the equations are compared taking into account the field data of an avalanche registered in the area of Vallter, located in the Pyrenees of Girona. Finally, once the model has been determined to be sufficiently robust, the event of a historical avalanche that occurred in the ancient village of Àrreu -Pyrenees of Lleida- where nineteen inhabitants lost their lives is studied. For the first time, a study is proposed on how this fateful event happened, taking into account the existing historical documentation, and different current methods of protection and containment are proposed to prevent it from happening again.