A 1-D elastic–plastic sea-ice model solved with an implicit Eulerian–Lagrangian method

Abstract

A physical model for an elastic–plastic rheology is developed and implemented in a numerical sea-ice model. The rheology describes sea ice as behaving as an elastic material for relatively small deformations and as a plastic material for larger ones. The model equations are solved using an Eulerian–Lagrangian method in which the displacement of granular aggregates from an original Eulerian grid is computed in a Lagrangian sense and the resulting mass distribution is mapped back onto the Eulerian grid. The equations are integrated in time using Krylov solvers in a fully-implicit framework. The model distinguishes itself from previous sea-ice models in a combination of attributes: the absence of a viscous dependence within the rheology, the employment of an Eulerian–Lagrangian grid, and in the use of a fully-implicit time-stepping scheme that allows for a large time-step. Model results and efficiency are presented from a one-dimensional simulation; plans for extension of the physics and numerics to two-dimensions are outlined.