Dynamics of an assembly of rigid ice floes

In this paper, we present a model describing the dynamics of a population of ice floes with arbitrary shapes and sizes, which are exposed to atmospheric and oceanic skin drag. The granular model presented is based on simplified momentum equations for ice floe motion between collisions and on the resolution of linear complementarity problems to deal with ice floe collisions. Between collisions, the motion of an individual ice floe satisfies the linear and angular momentum conservation equations, with classical formula applied to account for atmospheric and oceanic skin drag. To deal with collisions, before they lead to interpenetration, we included a linear complementarity problem based on the Signorini condition and Coulombs law. The nature of the contact is described through a constant coefficient of friction , as well as a coefficient of restitution (0 epsilon 1) describing the loss of kinetic energy during the collision. In the present version of our model, this coefficient is fixed. The model was validated using data obtained from the motion of interacting artificial wood floes in a test basin. The results of simulations comprising few hundreds of ice floes of various shapes and sizes, exposed to different forcing scenarios, and under different configurations, are also discussed. They show that the progressive clustering of ice floes as the result of kinetic energy dissipation during collisions is well captured, and suggest a collisional regimes of floe dispersion at small scales, different from a large-scale regime essentially driven by wind forcing.