Glacier width in FreeSurfaceSolver

Extension of Elmer in computational glaciology
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vanGeffen
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Glacier width in FreeSurfaceSolver

Post by vanGeffen »

Hi,

I have a question: is there an easy way to account for the glacier width W(x) in the FreeSurfaceSolver when running a flow-line model? I want to determine the free surface following the equation for the ice thickness as depicted in the attachment.

Thanks,

Sharon
ChangeIceThickness.png
ChangeIceThickness.png (24.96 KiB) Viewed 5478 times
with H the ice thickness, u the depth-averaged horizontal velocity, W the glacier width and b the surface mass balance
joeatodd
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Joined: 02 Feb 2012, 18:49
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Re: Glacier width in FreeSurfaceSolver

Post by joeatodd »

Hi Sharon,

It's possible to do this as an accumulation term in the freesurface equation, but I think that it's more accurate to directly account for the addition of mass in the stokes equations.

I wrote some code to do this in a flowline case by adding a "Pressure Load" following Peter's advice in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2273

The plan is for this code to make its way into the elmer/ice repository before too long. If you like I can pass it on to you for the time being, but it comes without any warranty ;)

Joe
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