Abstract
To clarify the tensile fracture strength of high-density wet snow, which can be seen in perennial snow patches of Japan during the ablation period, tensile fracture tests were carried out in a cold room at 0-1℃.Test specimens were taken from the Nishi-honjyozawa snow patch on Mt. Arasawa; these specimens had a dry density ranging from 497 to 855kg m-3 and liquid-water content ranging from 0％ to 16.1 ％ by weight. The test data showed the tendency of the tensile fracture strength to increase with dry density, although the data was scattered. This scatter indicates that the at the
tensile fracture strength of high-density wet snow is highly dependent on density as well as liquidwater content. Therefore, after the relationship between the tensile fracture strength of dry snow and its density was formalized using the data obtained by Mellor (1975) in addition to this test data, the following relationship was obtained by taking into consideration the decreasing rate of tensile fracture strength in response to the increase in liquid-water content: σt ＝1.0 ×10-9ρdry4.17exp(0.058ω),where σt is the tensile fracture strength of high-density wet snow (kPa);ρdry,the dry density of wet snow (kg m -3); and ω, the liquid-water content （％ by weight). This empirical formula was found to be suitable for estimating the tensile fracture strength of high-density wet snow with sufficient accuracy.
