Computational Modeling of Ice Mechanics: A Review of Challenges and Approaches in Engineering and Glaciology

This chapter provides a high-level overview of the currently available models for modeling the mechanics of ice, with a focus on glaciology as well as some engineering applications. The review attempts to summarize the variations of natural frozen water, which are referred to "ice materials", and to relate them to the formation process and associated mechanical properties. Given the various forms of ice materials, and the wide range of their response to mechanical loading under different loading conditions, various classes of mechanical models have been proposed for modeling ice materials in the literature. The presented review encompasses the wide range of these models beginning from fluid-flow idealizations that can be used to represent ice in extremely small loading rates, and including solid mechanics models such as elastic models, viscoelastic and viscoplastic models, and failure models such as linear elastic fracture, damage, and phase-field models. The review then extends to cover the application of the material models in two key applications: (a) glaciology and ice shelf calving, and (b) ice and hail impact analysis. Finally, a summary of the current challenges and opportunities in the field of ice mechanics are presented.