Item: WHEN AVALANCHES GET WETTER: ARE OUR BUILDING CODES FIT FOR THE FUTURE?
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Title: WHEN AVALANCHES GET WETTER: ARE OUR BUILDING CODES FIT FOR THE FUTURE?
Proceedings: Proceedings, International Snow Science Workshop, Whistler, BC, Canada, 2026
Authors:
- Michael L. Kyburz [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Center CERc, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Chair of Alpine Mass Movements, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland ]
- Stefan Margreth [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Betty Sovilla [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ]
- Johan Gaume [ WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Climate Change, Extremes and Natural Hazards in Alpine Regions Research Center CERc, Davos, Switzerland ] [ Chair of Alpine Mass Movements, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland ]
Date: 2026-09-28
Abstract: Avalanche impact pressures on structures remain challenging to predict because avalanche–structure interactions depend strongly on flow regime, snow properties and the geometry of the object. Current guidelines on structural actions predominantly estimate impact pressure using a hydrodynamic approach proportional to density and velocity squared. This approach may not adequately represent slow, wet avalanches, for which frictional, and cohesive effects can contribute substantially to the impact pressure. With wet-snow avalanches becoming more frequent in a warming climate, we assess the robustness and applicability of current guidelines on structural actions under such conditions. To achieve this, we use three-dimensional Material Point Method (MPM) simulations to investigate wet-snow avalanche impacts on structures representative of typical residential buildings. We compare the simulated pressures with predictions from current guidelines on structural actions and a recently proposed equation incorporating frictional and cohesive effects. Our results provide insight into the influence of avalanche width, flow velocity, and material cohesion on impact pressures. We find that the current guidelines generally underestimates impact pressures for slow avalanches, whereas including frictional and cohesive pressure contributions provides better agreement, particularly for wide avalanches. The simulations further reveal a strong dependence of impact pressure on the relative avalanche and structure widths, highlighting the importance of lateral confinement and the resulting mobilized domain in avalanche–structure interactions.
Object ID: ISSW2026_P1.55.pdf
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15788/1790098848
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s): Michael L. Kyburz
Keywords: Wet avalanche impact loads, Guidelines on structural actions, 3D Numerical modelling, Material Point Method, Climate change
Page Number(s): 2074 - 2080
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