Paul B. Duval

Elastoviscoplastic micromechanical modeling of the transient creep of ice

A salient feature of the rheology of isotropic polycrystalline ices is the decrease of the strain rate by more than 2 orders of magnitude during transient creep tests to reach a secondary creep regime at a strain which is systematically of ∼1%. We use a recent (so-called “affine”) version of the self-consistent mean-field theory to model the elastoviscoplastic behavior of ice. The model aims at bridging scales between the rheology of single grain and the one of polycrystals by evaluating the intergranular interactions. It takes into account the long-term memory effects, which manifests itself by the fact that local stress and strain rate in grains depend on the whole mechanical history of the polycrystal. It is shown that the strong hardening amplitude during the transient creep is entirely explained by the stress redistribution within the specimen, from an almost uniform stress distribution upon instantaneous loading (purely elastic response) to strong interphase and intraphase heterogeneities in the stationary regime (purely viscoplastic response). The experimental hardening kinetic is much too slow to be explained by the same process; it is attributed to the hardening of hard glide slip systems (prismatic slip) in the transient regime. Moreover, the model very well reproduces the permanent creep rate of several highly anisotropic specimens of the Greenland Ice Core Project ice core (pronounced crystallographic textures), when accounting for a single-grain rheology that well matches the experimental one. Our results are consistent with recent findings concerning dislocation dynamics in ice.

Creep and plasticity of glacier ice: a material science perspective

Major advances in understanding the plasticity of ice have been made during the past 60 years with the development of studies of the flow of glaciers and, recently, with the analysis of deep ice cores in Antarctica and Greenland. Recent experimental investigations clearly show that the plastic deformation of the ice single crystal and polycrystal is produced by intermittent dislocation bursts triggered by long-range interaction of dislocations. Such dislocation avalanches are associated with the formation of dislocation patterns in the form of slip lines and slip bands, which exhibit long-range correlations and scale invariance. Long-range dislocation interactions appear to play an essential role in primary creep of polycrystals and dynamic recrystallization. The large plastic anisotropy of the ice crystal is at the origin of large strain and stress heterogeneities within grains. The use of full-field approaches is now a compulsory proceeding to model the intracrystalline heterogeneities that develop in polycrystals. Ice is now highly regarded among the materials science community. It is considered a model material for understanding deformation processes of crystalline materials and polycrystal modeling.

Estimating the risk of glacier cavity collapse during artificial drainage: The case of Tête Rousse Glacier

[1]xa0During the summer of 2010, the presence of a pressurized water-filled subglacial-cavity of at least 50,000 m3 was detected within the Tete Rousse Glacier (French Alps). Artificial drainage was started to avoid an uncontrolled rupture of the ice dam, but was interrupted soon after to evaluate the capacity of the cavity-roof to bear itself. The risk was that the release of pressure within the cavity during the artificial drainage would precipitate the collapse of the cavity roof and potentially flush out the remaining water flooding the valley below. An unprecedented modeling effort was deployed to answer the question of the cavity roof stability. We set up a model of the glacier with its water cavity, solved the three-dimensional full-Stokes problem, predicted the upper surface and cavity surface displacements for various drainage scenarios, and quantified the risk of the cavity failure during artificial drainage. We found that the maximum tensile stress in the cavity roof was below the rupture value, indicating a low risk of collapse. A post drainage survey of the glacier surface displacements has confirmed the accuracy of the model prediction. This practical application demonstrates that ice flow models have reached sufficient maturity to become operational and assist policy-makers when faced with glaciological hazards, thus opening new perspectives in risk management of glacier hazards in high mountain regions.

Constitutive Modelling and Flow Simulation of Anisotropic Polar Ice

The different approaches explored by the authors to model the visco-plastic anisotropic behaviour of polar ice associated with the formation and evolution of fabrics, are reviewed. In order to achieve ice rheological models which can significantly improve the simulations of the evolution of ice sheets under varying climatic conditions, these models aim at taking into account the physical mechanisms likely to be active under the conditions prevailing in an ice sheet. Since the destination of a constitutive model for polar ice is its implementation into a large scale ice-sheet model, which is to be run extensively to simulate various climatic scenarios, some compromises must be made to limit its complexity. A possible solution is to use a hierarchy of models of increasing complexity. In this respect the results from the different models are compared and discussed from the viewpoint of ice-sheet flow modelling.