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FABIENNE GANTENBEIN

NTMxISOQUANT SciArt Residency Launches with Award-Winning Playwright

ISOQUANT and the Nationaltheater Mannheim launch a residency that bridges quantum physics and the performing arts.   more ...
SANDRA KLEVANSKY

Teaching Awards Announced

Four instructors were recognized for particularly effective teaching in the winter semester 2024/25.   more ...
ALESSA KLIOBA

Felix Röper Defends His Title at the Heidelberg Integration Bee

In front of nearly 300 spectators, students tackled challenging integrals —including those by Fields Medalists — at a thrilling jDPG com   more ...
FLAMINGOS

Strong Showing at International PLANCKS Competition

The Heidelberg teams performed impressively in Barcelona – securing second place and a solid position in the top half.   more ...
ISOQUANT

Quantum Physics at Noon - Tiny Particles, Big Ideas

This summer term, ISOQUANT and the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics are hosting the 'Akademische Mittagspause'   more ...
MU3E GROUP ANDRE SCHÖNING

Second funding period for Mu3e experiment

A further period of four years has been granted by the DFG.   more ...
CERN: MAXIMILIEN BRICE

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics 2025

The 2025 prize has been awarded to ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb   more ...
FLAMINGOS

First and fifth place in the Dopplers-competition

Congratulations to "Flamingos" and "Knechte Ruprechts"!   more ...
WOLFRAM PERNICE

POEM in physics

Precision Organoid Engineering for Multi-Organ Interaction Studies (POEM)   more ...
JULIAN SCHMITT

Quantum sites in the Quantum Year 2025

The “100 quantum sites” page for the quantum year is online   more ...

Physics colloquium

Friday, 27. June 2025 5:00 pm  Melting of ice

Prof. Dr. Detlef Lohse , Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen und University of Twente

The quantitative understanding of glacial ice melting into the ocean is one of the most outstanding challenges in environmental fluid dynamics. The lack of understanding is on a fundamental level, due to the highly complex multi-scale, multi-physics nature of the problem. The process involves intricate multi- way coupling effects, including thermal convection, salinity, ocean current, and radiation, etc. As ice melts into the surrounding salty water, a decrease in local salt concentration leads to reduced water density, inducing upward buoyant forces and, consequently, upward flow. This flow dynamically interacts with the ice, resulting in a feedback loop of further melting (Stefan problem). Our investigation employs direct numerical simulations with the phase field method. To capture the intricacies of melting dynamics within turbulent flows, we implement a multiple-resolution strategy for salinity and phase field simulations [3]. The versatility of our method is demonstrated through successful applications to diverse melting scenarios, including the formation of melt ponds [2], melting in Rayleigh-Bénard convection [4], vertical convection with fresh water [1], and vertical convection with salty water [3]. In this presentation, we showcase results obtained across these various geometries. This work contributes to advancing our understanding of the complex dynamics involved in glacial ice melting within oceanic environments.

References

1. Rui Yang, Kai Leong Chong, Hao-Ran Liu, Roberto Verzicco, and Detlef Lohse. Abrupt transition from slow to fast melting of ice. Phys. Rev. Fluids, 7(8):083503, 2022.

2. Rui Yang, Christopher J. Howland, Hao-Ran Liu, Roberto Verzicco, and Detlef Lohse. Bistability in radiatively heated melt ponds. Phys. Rev. Lett., 131:234002, Dec 2023.

3. Rui Yang, Christopher J. Howland, Hao-Ran Liu, Roberto Verzicco, and Detlef Lohse. Ice melting in salty water: layering and non-monotonic dependence on the mean salinity. J. Fluid Mech., 969:R2, 2023.

4. Rui Yang, Christopher J Howland, Hao-Ran Liu, Roberto Verzicco, and Detlef Lohse. Morphology evolution of a melting solid layer above its melt heated from below. J. Fluid Mech., 956:A23, 2023.


 

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