Thermo-mechanically coupled ice-sheet response — cold, polythermal, temperate

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Author: Hutter, Kolumban
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1993
• Subjects: Earth-Surface Processes; Ice Sheet; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022143000015720; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143000015720

Abstract Classical mixture concepts are the appropriate vehicle for describing the dynamics of ice masses containing some water. We review and derive, respectively, the theoretical formulations of cold, polythermal and temperate ice masses, emphasize the peculiarities of the model equations and point to difficulties that were encountered with the proposed models. The focus is both on the adequate physical motivation of the models and the consistency of their mathematical representation. The paper also has a tutorial character. As usual, cold ice is treated as a single-component incompressible heat-conducting viscous fluid, while two different models are presented for temperate ice. When it arises in a polythermal ice mass, the water content is small and a simple diffusive model for the moisture content suffices. This diffusive model is further simplified by taking its appropriate limit, when the moisture diffusivity tends to zero. Temperate ice in a wholly temperate — Alpine — glacier is treated as a two-phase flow problem, i.e. the momentum-balance laws of both constituents ice and water are properly accounted for. Such Darcy-type models are suggested because the water arises in a greater proportion; so its dynamic role can no longer be ignored. The constituent ice is treated as an incompressible non-linearly viscous isotropic body with constitutive properties similar to those of cold ice. The interstitial water is a density-preserving ideal or perfect fluid. The two interact with an interaction force that is proportional to the “porosity” and the seepage velocity. Internal melting that arises will lead to a generalization of the familiar Darcy law. When water is present, the boundary and transition conditions across internal singular surfaces take special, more complicated forms and involve statements on drainage to the base. These conditions are also discussed in detail.