Determination of failure envelope for faceted snow through numerical simulations

•Snow samples of FCso and FCsf snow were scanned through X-ray micro CT.•An elasto-plastic constitutive law for ice with damage is used to obtain strength of snow.•Failure envelopes for weak layers were obtained through numerical simulations.•The failure envelope for FCso snow follows Mohr–Coulomb with Cap model.•The failure envelope of FCsf snow is fitted with ellipse.

Failure of weak layer in a snowpack, lying on a slope, due to combined compression and shear loading is a major factor in release of slab avalanche. Failure envelopes for FCso and FCsf snow (Fierz et al., 2009) were determined using finite element (FE) modeling. Snow samples of FCso and FCsf from the field were taken to the laboratory and X-ray tomography was performed on these to reconstruct 3D microstructure of each snow type. From the images representative volume elements (RVEs) of each type was constructed. The RVEs were subjected to combined loading to predict the failure envelopes. These failure envelopes were compared to the data published earlier and showed similar trends.