Comparison of Three Contemporary Flow Laws in a Three-Dimensional, Time-Dependent Glacier Model

Abstract

A numerical model for three-dimensional, time-dependent glacier flow (Campbell and Rasmussen, 1970) treated the ice as a Newtonian viscous fluid and related its dynamics to two large-scale bulk parameters: the viscosity v determining the ice-to-ice friction, and a basal friction parameter A determining the ice-to-rock friction. The equations were solved using the relatively simple flow law of Bodvarsson (1955) in which the basal shear stress is proportional to volume transport. Recent research suggests that a more realistic basal flow law is one in which the basal shear stress to some lower power (1–3) is either proportional to the vertically averaged velocity (Glen, 1958; Nye, 1960, 1963[a], [b], [c], 1965[a], [b], [c]) or to the ratio of the vertically averaged velocity to glacier thickness (Budd and Jenssen, in press). In the present study a generalized flow law incorporating all of the above bulk basal flow laws is applied to the Campbell–Rasmussen momentum equation to form a generalized two-dimensional transport equation, which, when combined with the continuity equation, yields a numerically tractable set of equations for three-dimensional, time-dependent glacier flow. Solutions of the model are shown for steady-state flow and surge advance and recovery for a typical valley glacier bed for powers 1, 2, and 3 for each of the basal flow laws for a steady-state climate input and a given ice-to-ice viscosity parameter.