## 4 Conclusions  
A series of wind tunnel tests were carried out with fine silica sand as a substitute for snow particles to explore the interference effects of a high-rise building on the snow load on a low-rise building with a flat roof. The effects of the interfering building height and the distance between buildings on the snow distribution of the target building under three wind directions were discussed, and the following conclusions can be drawn.  
1. When the wind direction is \(0^{\circ}\) and the interfering building is positioned upstream of the target building, due to the shelter effect of the interfering building, the wind velocity is much weakened compared with the isolated condition. As a result, the snow distribution tends to be more uniform.
2. When the wind direction is \(90^{\circ}\) and the interfering building is on the side of the target building, a more eroded area appears on the target building roof due to the increasing friction velocity on the target building, and the snow distribution on the target building tends to be more uneven.
3. When the wind direction is \(180^{\circ}\) and the interfering building is positioned downstream of the target building, the target building is located at the back flow area caused by the interfering building, and there are amplification effects of snow accumulation on the target building. The forms of the snow distribution on the target building are nearly the same as that of the isolated condition.
4. Under each wind direction, the interference effect of the snow load increases with the increase of the building height and the decrease of the building spacing.  
The influence of the surrounding buildings on the snow distribution of the building roof cannot be ignored and should be considered in the structure design. It may be helpful to mitigate the negative effects of interference if the building under construction is close to  
Figure 7: Normalized snow depth of the central line on the target building under the \(180^{\circ}\) wind direction: (**a**) building spacing: \(H0\); (**b**) building spacing: \(2H0\); (**c**) building spacing: \(3H0\); (**d**) normalized mass of particles blown off the target building.  
the height of the surrounding buildings. More attention should be paid to the snow load interference effects in the future.  
Conceptualization, Q.Z. and F.F.; methodology, Z.Y.; software, H.M.; validation, Y.Z., Z.Y. and G.Z.; formal analysis, G.Z.; investigation, Z.Y.; resources, Q.Z.; data curation, F.F.; writing--original draft preparation, Z.Y.; writing--review and editing, G.Z.; visualization, Y.Z.; supervision, H.M.; project administration, F.F.; funding acquisition, Q.Z. and F.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research was funded by the Funds for Creative Research Groups of National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51921006), Chinese National Natural Science Foundation project (grant number 51978207, 51927813, 51808169), National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (grant number 51525802), and Heilongjiang Natural Science Foundation for Excellent Youth project (grant number YQ2021E030).  
The authors are grateful to the members of the Space Structure Research Center at the Harbin Institute of Technology, for providing invaluable information and advice in this study.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.