2023/09/04 by Luke G. Bennetts, Tim Williams, Bennetts, Luke G +3 · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Cryospheric studies and observations #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2309.01330
openalex publication_date 2023/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A variational principle is proposed to derive the governing equations for the problem of ocean wave interactions with a floating ice shelf, where the ice shelf is modelled by the full linear equations of elasticity and has an Archimedean draught. The variational principle is used to form a thin-plate approximation for the ice shelf, which includes water--ice coupling at the shelf front and extensional waves in the shelf, in contrast to the benchmark thin-plate approximation for ocean wave interactions with an ice shelf. The thin-plate approximation is combined with a single-mode approximation in the water, where the vertical motion is constrained to the eigenfunction that supports propagating waves. The new terms in the approximation are shown to have a major impact on predictions of ice shelf strains for wave periods in the swell regime.