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Enhancement of ice melting in isotropic turbulence

Aubrey L. McCutchan1, Colin R. Meyer2, and Blair A. Johnson1,*

  • *Contact author: blairjohnson@utexas.edu
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 9, 074601 – Published 2 July, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.074601

Abstract

Submarine melting at ice-ocean interfaces such as at tidewater glaciers and ice shelves is influenced by physical and chemical environmental factors including salinity, water temperature, stratification, subglacial hydrology, meltwater plumes, and oceanic currents. The effect of these individual components on ice loss can be difficult to capture in common ice-melting models. In particular, turbulence, which can develop as a result of ambient meltwater plumes and subglacial discharge along ice-water interfaces, for example, can increase mixing of relatively warm or high salinity ambient water with meltwater, thus enhancing melting. To isolate and understand the fundamental effects of turbulence on ice melting, we performed experiments of an ice sphere melting in homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) with negligible mean flow. This setup permits us to study melting in turbulence absent additional fluid flows such as mean shear generated by boundary flows, or density stratification due to thermal or salinity gradients. To reduce the effects of complex ice morphology, we selected an ice sphere to achieve a symmetric melting surface. Ambient water temperature was varied from 2 to 10∘C. Experiments were performed with both quiescent and turbulent flow surrounding the ice. For the turbulent melting cases, the turbulent kinetic energy of the flow was varied from 9.6 to 28.6cm2s−2. To link turbulence metrics and flow patterns to melting, we performed particle image velocimetry to obtain measurements of the two-dimensional velocity fields surrounding the sphere and to capture melting rates in experiments in a nonintrusive manner. Here, we explore the development of convective melt plumes and boundary layer flows that develop along the ice-water interface. We present melting data as a function of turbulence metrics and ambient water temperature. Through novel parametrization of our empirical results, our findings increase the understanding of the impact of turbulence on melting rates and aim to improve predictive numerical simulations of ice loss.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 9, 074601– Published 2 July, 2024
  • Received 10 February 2024
  • Accepted 29 May 2024
Article part of CHORUS
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