Even in the region with less snowfall, snow accretion to exterior wall surface and structural members of high rise building in Tokyo metropolitan region has frequently occurred. Concern about human damage produced by snow blocks falling including snow accretion has been pointed out. Therefore, it is important to build method of countermeasures against snow accretion for buildings. To accumulate technical data for countermeasures against snow accretion, the authors studied basic characteristics of snow accretion on structural members both observationally and experimentally.
First, field observation for snow accretion on structural members was performed in Sapporo of Hokkaido. When the snow accretion occurred during the observation, daily mean wind speed was more than 3.0 m/s. The snow accretion occurred around the stagnation of wind, which was formed in the vicinity of structural members. Next, wind tunnel test, for usual shape members such as steel pipes and flat plates, was performed. The snow accretion amount on the steel pipe increased with the diameter and it depended on the surface roughness in case of the steel pipe 216mm in diameter. The snow accretion amount on the steel plates decreased with attack angle. Through the observation and the wind tunnel test on snow accretion characteristics, technical data of countermeasures against snow accretion for buildings was obtained.