Drag on a body moving through snow

Abstract

Snow is an aggregation of ice particles. The force required when an object moving through snow is the sum of two forces to compress the ice particles in front and to displace them aside. Drag force on a cylinder moving through ice particles was measured as a function of velocity, cylinder diameter and immersion depth at −22.5℃ and −50-−80℃．Below 100mm s⁻¹, drag force increased with decreasing velocity. It was found that drag force was proportional to cylinder diameter and squares of the cylinder depth. Dimensional analysis of the experimental result led to the dimensionless quantity K, which explains the measured velocity dependence of drag force. K is a function of friction coefficient of ice particles and it shows similar tendency as ice-ice friction coefficient on a flat surface. As a conclusion, mechanism of friction between ice particles was similar to ice-ice friction and it can be explained by water lubrication at highspeed condition and ice adhesion-shear deformation affected by ice sintering at low-speed condition.