Interactive Couette and Poiseuille flow, Svalbard, Norway, 2016

This project examines the processes controlling the flow of water through and beneath an Arctic glacier. The hydraulic properties of glaciers are a major factor influencing the rate at which glaciers slide on the underlying rock. Understanding subglacial flow is critical to developing models that accurately predict how glaciers will behave in response to warming climate and how glaciers will contribute to sea level rise. For outreach and educational purposes, the project has developed a web-based, interactive fluid dynamics tutorial concerning subglacial conduits. A project web site was also be developed. The project contributes to workforce development by supporting the training of a graduate student and by providing partial support for three early-career scientists. This study performed three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and large eddy simulations (LES) of turbulent flows in a subglacial conduit using realistic surfaces and mesh boundaries. The computations were done using 3D high-performance computing. The conduit geometry and roughness was based on a unique set of field measurements made on a Svalbard glacier using a modified video-game controller at mm resolution. The result of this effort is a first-ever high resolution visualization of a real subglacial conduit and the first subglacial LES simulations with realistic geometry. Results were compared with model output using the more standard Darcy-Weisbach or Manning formulations. The study provides improved insights into hydrological processes in mountain glaciers and large ice sheets such as the Greenland Ice Sheet. Here we present a Jupyter Notebook that provides a simple interactive graphical interface to explore Couettte flow and Poiseuille flow. The code is written in Python.