A continuum damage mechanics approach to simulation of creep and fracture in ice sheets

We investigate iceberg calving from grounded tidewater and outlet glaciers using a novel creep continuum damage model for polycrystalline ice, which is valid for low stresses or strain rates. The proposed three-dimensional model is based on a thermo-viscoelastic constitutive law for ice creep and a local damage accumulation law for tension, compression and shear loadings. The model has been validated by published experimental data and is implemented in the commercially available finite element code ABAQUS by adopting a strain-based algorithm in a Lagrangian description. The model is then used to investigate conditions that enable surface, englacial and basal crevasse formation resulting from different boundary conditions applied to an idealized rectangular slab of ice in contact with the ocean. Preliminary simulations, based on imposed stress fields, suggest that a low tensile stress is required for crevasse (crack) opening and propagation to the bottom of the ice slab. In all the subsequent simulations the internal stress field is explicitly calculated. Basal boundary condition of the ice slab is varied from free slip to Newtonian frictional slip to study its effect on crack growth. The simulation results suggest that in the case of deeper (thicker) ice sheets compression failure of ice at the bottom is a possible mode of failure and that the height of the sea water level influences the depth of the crevasses.