Author(s)

S. Ceci, L. De Biase & G. Fossati

Abstract

Studying heat transfer in 3D water or ice basins involves the solution of Navier Stokes or Stokes systems of PDE, coupled with a scalar equation for thermal energy transport. The method used in this paper is based on a Finite Volume technique where physical quantities and boundary conditions are approximated by means of high order formulae and the time advance is dealt with by a fractional step technique. This paper is mainly concerned with applications, but, with respect to a preceding version of the method, an evaluation of performance of techniques dealing with the turbulent viscosity in water basins is presented and a study of the temperature field in a glacier is included. The method is applied to a thermal discharge in a water basin of lower temperature and to a portion of the Priestley Glacier (Antarctica). The results are very accurate and coherent with the physical theory and with measured data. Keywords: fluid dynamics, glacier modelling, glacier temperature, thermal discharges. 1 Brief description of the method In this paper some interesting applications of a method presented in Deponti et al. [1] aimed at modelling meso-scale mass and energy flows in glaciers are presented, together with applications of a similar method (Hagos et al. [2]), modelling thermal discharges in water basins. The method for the study of flow and thermal energy transport in water basins is based on Navier-Stokes equation, coupled with the temperature transport equation.

Keywords

fluid dynamics, glacier modelling, glacier temperature, thermal discharges.