FEM@LLNL | Numerical Solvers for Viscous Contact Problems in Glaciology

Sponsored by the MFEM project, the FEM@LLNL Seminar Series focuses on finite element research and applications talks of interest to the MFEM community.

On May 6, 2024, Gonzalo de Diego of New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences presented “Numerical Solvers for Viscous Contact Problems in Glaciology.” Viscous contact problems are time-dependent viscous flow problems where the fluid is in contact with a solid surface from which it can detach and reattach. Over sufficiently long timescales, ice is assumed to flow like a viscous fluid with a nonlinear rheology. Therefore, certain phenomena in glaciology, like the formation of subglacial cavities in the base of an ice sheet or the dynamics of marine ice sheets (continental ice sheets that slide into the ocean and go afloat at a grounding line, detaching from the bedrock), can be modelled as viscous contact problems. In particular, these problems can be described by coupling the Stokes equations with contact boundary conditions to free boundary equations that evolve the ice domain in time. In this talk, de Diego described the difficulties that arise when attempting to solve this system numerically and introduced a method that is capable of overcoming them.

Learn more about MFEM at https://mfem.org/ and view the seminar speaker lineup at https://mfem.org/seminar/.

LLNL-VIDEO-865044