Abstract

The presence of ice in rivers is an important phenomenon to be considered in the development of water resources in cold regions. Ice formation can affect the design, operation, and maintenance of hydraulic engineering facilities in cold regions. River ice phenomena involve complex interactions between hydrodynamic, mechanical, and thermal processes, as well as the ambient hydro-meteorological conditions and channel morphology. This presentation will discuss the current state of knowledge and unresolved issues on modeling river ice dynamics and the associated thermal processes. These issues include ice jam formation and release during freeze up and breakup, ice cover breakup, frazil ice evolution, and anchor ice formation and release. The possible similarities between these river ice phenomena and sea ice will be discussed.

Keywords: River ice, freeze up, ice jams, breakup, hydrodynamics, mathematical modeling