Modeling the Fracture of Ice Sheets on Parallel Computers

• Main Authors: Waisman, Haim, Tuminaro, Ray
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1127195; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1127195; https://doi.org/10.2172/1127195

The objective of this project was to investigate the complex fracture of ice and understand its role within larger ice sheet simulations and global climate change. This objective was achieved by developing novel physics based models for ice, novel numerical tools to enable the modeling of the physics and by collaboration with the ice community experts. At the present time, ice fracture is not explicitly considered within ice sheet models due in part to large computational costs associated with the accurate modeling of this complex phenomena. However, fracture not only plays an extremely important role in regional behavior but also influences ice dynamics over much larger zones in ways that are currently not well understood. To this end, our research findings through this project offers significant advancement to the field and closes a large gap of knowledge in understanding and modeling the fracture of ice sheets in the polar regions. Thus, we believe that our objective has been achieved and our research accomplishments are significant. This is corroborated through a set of published papers, posters and presentations at technical conferences in the field. In particular significant progress has been made in the mechanics of ice, fracture of ice sheets and ice shelves in polar regions and sophisticated numerical methods that enable the solution of the physics in an efficient way.