Application of discrete-element methods to approximate sea-ice dynamics

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018MS001299. This is version 2 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Anders Damsgaard, Alistair Adcroft, Olga Sergienko

Abstract

Lagrangian models of sea-ice dynamics have several advantages over Eulerian continuum models. Spatial discretization on the ice-floe scale are natural for Lagrangian models and offer exact solutions for mechanical non-linearities with arbitrary sea-ice concentrations. This allows for improved model performance in ice-marginal zones. Furthermore, Lagrangian models can explicitly simulate jamming processes such as sea ice movement through narrow confinements. Granular jamming is a chaotic process that occurs when the right grains arrive at the right place at the right time, and the jamming likelihood over time can be described by a probabilistic model. While difficult to parameterize in continuum formulations, jamming emerges spontaneously in dense granular systems simulated in a Lagrangian framework. Here, we present a flexible discrete-element framework for approximating Lagrangian sea-ice mechanics at the ice-floe scale, forced by ocean and atmosphere velocity fields. Our goal is to evaluate the potential of simpler models than the traditional discrete-element methods for granular dynamics. We demonstrate that frictionless contact models based on compressive stiffness alone are unlikely to produce jamming, and describe two different approaches based on Coulomb-friction and cohesion which both result in increased bulk shear strength of the granular assemblage. The frictionless but cohesive contact model displays jamming behavior which is similar to the more complex model with Coulomb friction and ice-floe rotation at larger scales, and has significantly lower computational cost.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/osf.io/j6vpn

Subjects

Earth Sciences, Glaciology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Keywords

rheology, jamming, sea ice, Discrete Element Method, granular material

Dates

Published: 2018-02-14 09:17

Last Updated: 2018-07-18 06:37

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License

Academic Free License (AFL) 3.0