Geodict applications in sea ice geophysics and engineering

Ongoing climate change is accompanied by changes in sea ice cover, extent and thickness, in particular in the Arctic. These changes affect the Arctic and global climate system, yet also engineering aspects like the interaction of sea ice with offshore structures (including wind turbines) and ship resistance to sea ice. Also icing due to sea spray is a topic of growing interest in an Arctic Ocean that opens more and more for ship traffic.

Sea ice is a porous ice medium that consists of at least three (air, ice, brine) and sometimes more (solid salts) phases, which makes it a challenging material for geophysicists and engineers, as the properties of sea ice depend (as for many other materials), on its pore space details. However, micro-Ct imaging of sea ice is difficult due to the need of proper temperature control during transport, storage and imaging, and time constraints due to sea ice’s reactive nature. Hence, we still know little about the 3D structure of sea ice, and how it changes when ice gets thinner and warmer under the present climate. 

The present talk presents applications to study the 3D microstructure of sea ice by means of GeoDict, performed during the past five years. The topics addressed include packing of ice blocks, the analysis of the sea ice pore space and its percolation, the computation of physical properties like permeability and thermal conductivity, the pore space evolution during the freezing process of saline droplets and sea spray ice. It is shown that GeoDict is a useful tool to study sea ice microstructure in terms of “Digital Sea Ice Physics”.