Criteria for Submergence of Ice Blocks in Front of Ice Cover

During winter, ice jams develop when floating ice blocks accumulate in rivers. Ice jams can dramatically decrease in the capacity of flow in a river and can cause ice flooding due to increase in water level. Submergence of floating ice blocks in front of ice cover is critical for the development of an ice jam. In this study, the effect of the rotation angle of ice blocks on the submergence of ice block was assessed. The impacts of both the drag force caused by the flow and the hydraulic pressure force on the rotation of ice block were studied. Considering both the maximum moment for anti-overturn of an ice block, and the associated rotation angle θ1, equations for describing the criteria for ice block entrainment in front of ice cover have been derived. On the basis of the theorem for moment equilibrium, relating the moment acting on a horizontal ice block with the maximum anti-overturn moment of an ice block, the criteria for assessing the overturn-and-submergence of an ice block have been proposed. To verify results using the derived equations for calculating the critical flow velocity for ice block submergence in front of ice cover, data was collected from flume experiments in the laboratory. Experiments have been conducted using different sizes of ice block under different flow conditions in a flume which is 26.68 m long, 0.40 m wide, and 0.6 m deep. Model ice blocks were made of polypropylene and have nearly the same as the mass density of the natural ice. Using proposed method for assessing ice block submergence in front of ice cover, calculated critical flow velocities agree well with those of experiments.

Revisit submergence of ice blocks in front of ice cover–an experimental study

The present paper studies the stabilities of ice blocks in front of an ice cover based on experiments carried out in laboratory by using four types of ice blocks with different dimensions. The forces acting on the ice blocks in front of the ice cover are analyzed. The critical criteria for the entrainment of ice blocks in front of the ice cover are established by considering the drag force caused by the flowing water, the collision force, and the hydraulic pressure force. Formula for determining whether or not an ice block will be entrained under the ice cover is derived. All three dimensions of the ice block are considered in the proposed formula. The velocities calculated by using the developed formula are compared with those of calculated by other formulas proposed by other researchers, as well as the measured flow velocities for the entrainment of ice blocks in laboratory. The fitting values obtained by using the derived formula agree well with the experimental results.

Analyses of the stability of submerged ice blocks

This paper proposes the critical conditions for a submerged ice block beneath an intact ice cover to become unstable,as a fundamental component of any numerical model to successfully predict the ice jam formation or the ice jam release events.The flume model experimental and numerical simulation methods are both applied to analyze the stability of submerged ice blocks.The flume model experiment is first conducted,and the experimental results indicate that the influencing factors of the stability of a submerged ice block include the relative length,the relative water depth and the relative width.It was shown that the effect of the relative width on the stability of submerged ice blocks was not well studied.Based on the experimental results,the k-eturbulence model is applied to establish a 3-D numerical model for studying the pressure distribution beneath submerged ice blocks.The effects of the relative width on the Venturi pressure and the leading edge pressure are evaluated.Finally,according to the force balance equation and the moment balance equation,this paper proposes a computational formula for the sliding and underturning critical conditions of submerged ice blocks,and the results are in good agreement with the experimental results.