ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Cryospheric Sciences
Optimizing Subgrade Design for Blowing Snow Prevention: A CFD-Based Parametric Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinjiang University, Urumqi, China
- 2Xinjiang Transportation Planning Survey and Design Institute Co., Ltd., Urumqi, China
- 3Xinjiang Key Laboratory for Safety and Health of Transportation Infrastructure in Alpine and High-altitude Mountainous Areas, Urumqi, China
- 4Xinjiang Engineering Research Center for Disaster Prevention and Control Technology of Mountain Transportation Infrastructure, Urumqi, China
- 5China Gezhouba Group Municipal Engineering Co., Ltd., Yichang, China
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Blowing snow poses a serious threat to highway traffic safety, and appropriate subgrade cross-sectional designs can effectively mitigate the impacts. Systematic studies on how to optimize subgrade structural design to maximize the mitigation of blowing snow disasters are still lacking. To address this, this paper investigates the fundamental parameters of two typical subgrades: embankments and cuttings. To investigate the influence of varying subgrade cross-sectional configurations and slope ratios on the effectiveness of blowing snow control with a focus on single-parameter variations, this study employs CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations to analyze velocity contour distributions, snow accumulation patterns, and vertical wind velocity profiles around the models. The results demonstrate that implementing gentle slopes for subgrades (including both embankments and cuttings) or appropriately widening snow accumulation platforms of the cutting can effectively mitigate snow deposition on pavement surfaces. When wind flows through the cutting, the overall wind velocity profile exhibits a W-shaped distribution pattern. Meanwhile, variations in its depth and slope ratio both exhibit positive correlations with road snow accumulation. Furthermore, three embankment models with cross-sectional dimensions identical to those of field conditions but varying heights are established. Through combined field monitoring tests and numerical simulations, wind velocities are systematically measured at ten vertical elevations for all critical locations. Comparative results demonstrate that the flow field distribution patterns and variation trends observed in the field are highly consistent with the numerical simulation results, thereby validating the reliability of the numerical model.
Keywords: blowing snow, CFD Simulation, Snow accumulation, Subgrade parameters, Velocity contour, Vertical wind profile measurement
Received: 08 Oct 2025; Accepted: 11 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, He, Wang, Wang and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhiwei Yang
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