Time Domain Vibration Analysis of an Ice Shelf

Abstract

A method is presented to calculate the vibrations of an ice shelf floating in shallow water under different boundary conditions. One condition is that there is no flux, which reduces all calculations and the other is that there is no pressure at the seaward end of the ice shelf. The effect of these boundary conditions is investigated in detail, and the modes of vibration are also determined. Motion simulations of the system are presented for the potential velocity of the water and the vertical displacement of the ice shelf. These are found through a numerical method, which reduces all calculations to matrix multiplication. The underlying motion is shown to be very complex and difficult to interpret from single-point response measurements. The motion of more realistic ice shelves can be expected to be even more complicated.