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Flotation and free surface flow in a model for subglacial drainage. Part 1. Distributed drainage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2012

Christian Schoof ,
Ian J. Hewitt  and
Mauro A. Werder
Christian Schoof*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Ian J. Hewitt
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, 1984 Mathematics Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2, Canada
Mauro A. Werder
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada
*
†Email address for correspondence: cschoof@eos.ubc.ca
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Abstract

We present a continuum model for melt water drainage through a spatially distributed system of connected subglacial cavities, and consider in this context the complications introduced when effective pressure or water pressure drops to zero. Instead of unphysically allowing water pressure to become negative, we model the formation of a partially vapour- or air-filled space between ice and bed. Likewise, instead of allowing sustained negative effective pressures, we allow ice to separate from the bed at zero effective pressure. The resulting model is a free boundary problem in which an elliptic obstacle problem determines hydraulic potential, and therefore also determines regions of zero effective pressure and zero water pressure. This is coupled with a transport problem for stored water, and the coupled system bears some similarities with Hele-Shaw and squeeze-film models. We present a numerical method for computing time-dependent solutions, and find close agreement with semi-analytical travelling wave and steady-state solutions. As may be expected, we find that ice–bed separation is favoured by high fluxes and low ice surface slopes and low bed slopes, while partially filled cavities are favoured by low fluxes and high slopes. At the boundaries of regions with zero water or effective pressure, discontinuities in water level are frequently present, either in the form of propagating shocks or as stationary hydraulic jumps accompanied by discontinuities in potential gradient.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Hydraulic control Geophysical and Geological Flows: Ice sheets Low-Reynolds-number flows: Porous media
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 702 , 10 July 2012 , pp. 126 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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