Primary Supervisor: Professor Peter Sammonds (IRDR / Earth Sciences)

Secondary Supervisor: Dr Daniel Feltham (UCL Centre for Polar Observation & Modelling)

Tertiary Supervisors: Dr Knut Hoyland (NTNU, Trondheim, Norway)

Dr Eleanor Bailey (C-Core, Newfoundland, Canada)

Research Question The demand for reliable sources of resources is driving increased industrial activity, onshore and offshore, in the environmentally sensitive Arctic. The receding and thinning Arctic Ocean sea ice coveris opening up new shipping routes. There is significant environmental risk associated with offshore operations and shipping, which needs to be mitigated by improved understanding of the Arctic environment and more closely defined engineering questions.

 In particular, thick sea ice features, known as ridges and keels, are a hazard to Arctic offshore operations because they can exert destructive forces. The force an ice feature can exert on a structure is governed by its strength. That strength, and how it evolves over time, is governed by the degree of consolidation, i.e. freezing together, of the rafted ice, ice rubble, and ice blocks that comprise the ice feature. Previous work highlights the need for a comprehensive,thermo-mechanical model that can model both consolidation and fracturing of rafted and ridged ice.

Proposed Research This project focuses on the development of atwo-dimensional(2D)thermal consolidation and failure model for rafted and ridged sea ice (these features are much longer than they are wide and deep, so that a 3D model is not required). The model will resolve outstanding problems of the consolidation process including the impact of salt released during freezing and the influx of sea water into a keel. The model equations will be analysed analytically but also solved numerically. Fracture will be addressed by analysing the shear fracture energy required to rupture ice freeze bonds as a function of the degree of consolidation. The model study will be guided by supplemented with laboratory experiments of 2D consolidation and strength of sea ice in the UCL cold room, where the evolving temperature and salinity distributions will be measured. Shear fracture experiments will measure the energy for breaking freeze bonds and bending experiments will measure the bending strength of consolidated floes.

The model will be validated against field measurements. The UCL student will work cooperatively with a PhD student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, working on numerical simulations of sea ice interactions with offshore structures, and with a PhD student at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), working on full scale sea ice properties.

Student Prerequisites A successful candidate will have a good honours degree in engineering, physics or geophysics with an enthusiasm for computational modelling andfieldwork, and an aptitude for laboratory experiments. An MSci, MSc or MRes degree would be an advantage. Funding is available for UK/EU students only.

Training and support The student will receive training in numerical modelling and laboratory ice physics, joining an active research groups working on problems of polar modelling and ice strength in Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and in the Rock and Ice Physics Laboratory at UCL. UCL has a programme of courses promoting transferable skills such as research planning and presentation, computing and scientific writing.

Career prospects Careers In research in arctic engineering and geophysics,and in risk and hazard assessment and management in the City would be open to the graduate.