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Prototype construction of subglacial hydraulics & bedload flume experiment
Subglacial water drainage and sediment transport is an important but poorly known process in the glacier system. This Master project aims at developing a prototype flume experiment to investigate these processes in the laboratory.
Subglacial drainage and sediment transport (i.e. melt water and sediment flow along the ice-bed interface) has wide-ranging impacts: from dictating glacier sliding speed to determining the safety of deep geological of nuclear waste repositories. Research during the last decades produced tremendous advances in our understanding of subglacial drainage, both through theory and increasingly sophisticated field experiments. Direct observations of subglacial drainage and sediment transport processes, however, are impossible and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. This lack of observations could be overcome by using a physical model of subglacial drainage. Whilst there have been laboratory experiments of other subglacial processes such as sliding, none have been performed to study subglacial water flow and bedload transport. This project will investigate the feasibility of such an experiment by fitting an existing (open channel flow) flume at the VAW laboratory with a lid to allow to simulate pressurised flow and sediment transport conditions.
Subglacial drainage and sediment transport (i.e. melt water and sediment flow along the ice-bed interface) has wide-ranging impacts: from dictating glacier sliding speed to determining the safety of deep geological of nuclear waste repositories. Research during the last decades produced tremendous advances in our understanding of subglacial drainage, both through theory and increasingly sophisticated field experiments. Direct observations of subglacial drainage and sediment transport processes, however, are impossible and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. This lack of observations could be overcome by using a physical model of subglacial drainage. Whilst there have been laboratory experiments of other subglacial processes such as sliding, none have been performed to study subglacial water flow and bedload transport. This project will investigate the feasibility of such an experiment by fitting an existing (open channel flow) flume at the VAW laboratory with a lid to allow to simulate pressurised flow and sediment transport conditions.
To investigate the feasibility of a flume experiment to simulate subglacial drainage over a movable sediment bed. This thesis will focus on the hydraulic engineering challenges to produce a realistic and working prototype. Experiments to determine hydraulic roughness and equilibrium bedload transport will be conducted. This work will be in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.
To investigate the feasibility of a flume experiment to simulate subglacial drainage over a movable sediment bed. This thesis will focus on the hydraulic engineering challenges to produce a realistic and working prototype. Experiments to determine hydraulic roughness and equilibrium bedload transport will be conducted. This work will be in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL.
Dr. Mauro Werder
Glaziologie, HIA D 54.2
+41 44 632 40 92
werder@vaw.baug.ethz.ch
Dr. Mauro Werder Glaziologie, HIA D 54.2 +41 44 632 40 92 werder@vaw.baug.ethz.ch