Ablation of sloping ice faces into polar seawater

Abstract

The effects of the slope of an ice-seawater interface on the mechanisms and rate of ablation of the ice by natural convection are examined using turbulence-resolving simulations. Solutions are obtained for ice slopes θ = 2°-90°, at a fixed ambient salinity and temperature, chosen to represent common Antarctic ocean conditions. For laminar boundary layers the ablation rate decreases with height, whereas in the turbulent regime the ablation rate is found to be height independent. The simulated laminar ablation rates scale with (sinθ) 1/4 , whereas in the turbulent regime it follows a (sin θ) 2/3 scaling, both consistent with the theoretical predictions developed here. The reduction in the abla..