Author(s): Erik De Goede; Stendert Laan; Bert Jagers; Leo Leummens
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Ice growth and melt; Shallow water flow; Impact on water safety; Numerical modelling; Model validation
Abstract:
Numerical modelling of ice growth and melt on regional scales such as lakes, estuaries or coastal seas, can be crucial for system understanding, planning and infrastructure design. Ice coverage has a direct impact on the dynamics of these systems and indirectly on communities that depend on those water bodies. However, there is a lack of ice models suitable for studying these complex integral physical processes on regional scales. Typically, ice modelling either focuses on ocean scales using climate models or on local scales to study ice-structure interactions. A regional scale for ice models can bridge the gap between the two. Therefore, this paper focuses on ice modelling in lakes, estuaries and rivers for application on unstructured grids. This has been implemented in the Delft3D Flexible Mesh Suite, which is an integrated modelling package for unstructured grids, simulating two- and three-dimensional flow, sediment transport, morphology, waves, water quality and ecology and interactions between these processes. The hydrodynamic module D Flow Flexible Mesh, which is part of Delft3D Flexible Mesh, has been extended with a thermodynamic model for ice. The current version includes a single ice layer with snow. Ice thickness, ice area fraction and snow melt can be computed within the model or can be forced externally via model input, while snow fall is specified on input. The suitability of this ice model is shown for several applications.
Year: 2024