Author(s): Jennifer K. Hutchings; William D. Hibler III
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Sea ice deformation is observed in narrow zones of high strain rate that extend hundreds of kilometres across the Arctic Basin. This paper demonstrates that these fractures may be modelled with the viscous–plastic sea ice model, using an isotropic rheology. If the ice is assumed to be heterogeneous at the grid scale, and allowed to weaken in time, fractures propagate across the region in two preferred directions. It is demonstrated this model may be used to investigate the relationship between sea ice deformation and weather systems, and may be extended to smaller scale studies.
Year: 2002