10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
[MIS21-01] Dynamics of lab-scale icebergs melting in stratified environments
Keywords:Stratified flow, Iceberg, Phase change, Laboratory experiment
Icebergs, large bodies of freshwater ice calved from the edges of marine-terminating glaciers, account for a large proportion of the total mass discharge from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Once icebergs are released into the ocean, they move and melt while floating in aquatic systems. Since a considerably large volume of fresh meltwater is released while melting, icebergs impact the stratified ocean dynamics, as well as the marine ecosystem. Despite such relevance, little is known about their dynamics, i.e., how they travel, how they melt, how they affect the ambient system, and vice versa. It is indeed a significant challenge to survey the fluid dynamics in the vicinity of icebergs. Although many empirical models of iceberg melting have been proposed, we still lack a unified understanding of the two-way interactions between iceberg melting and surrounding fluid dynamics.
To better understand the physics of iceberg melting, we constructed an experimental system to measure a freely floating lab-scale iceberg in thermally stratified systems. The system consists of two cameras mounted at the top and the side. The top camera tracks the lateral position of the ice and measures surface flows to quantify the iceberg behavior. The side camera and a light sheet are continuously actuated in real time to target the iceberg position identified by the top camera. Flow fields under water are quantified utilizing particle image velocimetry by tracking thermochromic liquid crystals particles seeded into the ambient water. The outermost outline of the iceberg can also be identified as the light sheet slices its center, which allows elucidating melting rate as volume loss in time. The experimental results facilitate a deep understanding of actual iceberg dynamics in nature, putting emphasis on previously overlooked processes: iceberg dynamics in stratified environments.
To better understand the physics of iceberg melting, we constructed an experimental system to measure a freely floating lab-scale iceberg in thermally stratified systems. The system consists of two cameras mounted at the top and the side. The top camera tracks the lateral position of the ice and measures surface flows to quantify the iceberg behavior. The side camera and a light sheet are continuously actuated in real time to target the iceberg position identified by the top camera. Flow fields under water are quantified utilizing particle image velocimetry by tracking thermochromic liquid crystals particles seeded into the ambient water. The outermost outline of the iceberg can also be identified as the light sheet slices its center, which allows elucidating melting rate as volume loss in time. The experimental results facilitate a deep understanding of actual iceberg dynamics in nature, putting emphasis on previously overlooked processes: iceberg dynamics in stratified environments.