A new modeling framework for sea-ice mechanics based on elasto-brittle rheology

We present a new modeling framework for sea-ice mechanics based on elasto-brittle (EB) behavior. The EB framework considers sea ice as a continuous elastic plate encountering progressive damage, simulating the opening of cracks and leads. As a result of long-range elastic interactions, the stress re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Glaciology
Main Authors: Girard, Lucas, Bouillon, Sylvain, Weiss, Jérôme, Amitrano, David, Fichefet, Thierry, Legat, Vincent
Other Authors: Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble - Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement, UCL - SST/ELI/ELIC - Earth & Climate, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble - Laboratoire de Glaciologie et de Géophysique de l'Environnement, Grenoble, France, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble - Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et de Tectonophysique, UCL - SST/IMMC - Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: International Glaciological Society 2011
Subjects:
CECI
1443
Arctic
Annals of Glaciology
Sea ice
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/74814
https://doi.org/10.3189/172756411795931499
Description
Summary:We present a new modeling framework for sea-ice mechanics based on elasto-brittle (EB) behavior. The EB framework considers sea ice as a continuous elastic plate encountering progressive damage, simulating the opening of cracks and leads. As a result of long-range elastic interactions, the stress relaxation following a damage event can induce an avalanche of damage. Damage propagates in narrow linear features, resulting in a very heterogeneous strain ?eld. Idealized simulations of the Arctic sea-ice cover are analyzed in terms of ice strain rates and contrasted to observations and simulations performed with the classical viscous–plastic (VP) rheology. The statistical and scaling properties of ice strain rates are used as the evaluation metric. We show that EB simulations give a good representation of the shear faulting mechanism that accommodates most sea-ice deformation. The distributions of strain rates and the scaling laws of ice deformation are well captured by the EB framework, which is not the case for VP simulations. These results suggest that the properties of ice deformation emerge from elasto-brittle ice-mechanical behavior and motivate the implementation of the EB framework in a global sea-ice model.

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