Bulletin of the American Physical Society
71st Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics
Volume 63, Number 13
Sunday–Tuesday, November 18–20, 2018; Atlanta, Georgia
Session E35: Geophysical Fluid Dynamics: Cryosphere
5:10 PM–5:49 PM,
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Georgia World Congress Center
Room: B407
Chair: Andrew Wells, University of Oxford
Abstract ID: BAPS.2018.DFD.E35.2
Abstract: E35.00002 : Transition to turbulence in the oceanic boundary layer beneath ice shelves*
5:23 PM–5:36 PM
Presenter:
Catherine A. Vreugdenhil
(Univ of Cambridge)
Authors:
Catherine A. Vreugdenhil
(Univ of Cambridge)
John R. Taylor
(Univ of Cambridge)
We use large-eddy simulations of the ocean beneath ice shelves to examine the transition to turbulence and the melt rate. The rectangular domain is bounded from above by the ice shelf base where a dynamic melt condition is imposed. An imposed far-field current provides a shear flow while the far-field temperature and salinity are restored to chosen values. For the majority of the simulations, the ice base is assumed to be horizontal, but in a series of additional runs the effect of small slopes is considered. We examine a range of far-field current strengths and temperatures to identify a fully turbulent regime and a relaminarising regime. The Obukov length scale, a comparison of the strength of shear flow turbulence to the buoyancy flux at the base of the ice, is successfully used to describe this transition to turbulence. We use parameters that are comparable to realistic Antarctic ice shelves to provide a real-world comparison.
*The NERC Standard Grant NE/N009746/1 is gratefully acknowledged for supporting the research presented here.
To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2018.DFD.E35.2
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2025 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700