Numerical simulation on snow melting phenomena by CIP method Original Research Article

A numerical scheme based on the C-CUP method to simulate melting phenomena in snow is proposed. To calculate these complex phenomena we introduce the phase change, elastic-plastic model, porous model, and verify each model by using some simple examples. This scheme is applied to a practical model, such as the snow piled on the insulator of electrical transmission line, in which snow is modeled as a compound material composed of air, water, and ice, and is calculated by elastic-plastic model. The electric field between two electrodes is solved by the Poisson equation giving the Joule heating in the energy conservation that eventually leads to snow melting. Comparison is made by changing the fraction of water in the snow to see its effect on melting process for the cases of applied voltage of 50 and 500 kV on the two electrodes.