ONE-DIMENSIONAL WATER FLOW THROUGH SNOW
A THEORY IS DEVELOPED TO DESCRIBE THE PERCOLATION OF WATER THROUGH ISOTHERMAL SNOW WITH A VERTICAL POROSITY GRADIENT. WHILE THE NECESSARY LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN DONE FOR SNOW, CONCEPTS FROM THE GENERAL THEORY OF TWO PHASE FLOW THROUGH POROUS MEDIA ARE USED IN THE DEVELOPMENT. THE GENERAL SOLUTION FOR THE ONE- DIMENSIONAL PROBLEM IS GIVEN, WHICH, WHEN COMBINED WITH ANY PERIODIC BOUNDARY CONDITION, CAN BE USED TO MAKE QUANTITATIVE PREDICTIONS. THE THEORY IS APPLIED TO WATER PERCOLATION THROUGH FIRM ON THE UPPER SEWARD GLACIER. USING APPROPRIATE VALUES FOR THE PARAMETERS, THE THEORY SHOWS A WAVE OF VOLUME FLUX WHICH TRAVELS DOWN INTO THE FIRN AND DEVELOPS FEATURES SIMILAR TO THOSE PREVIOUSLY OBSERVED. THESE INCLUDE AN INITIALLY SYMMETRIC WAVE WHICH DISTORTS WITH DEPTH, CONTINUOUS (RATHER THAN INTERMITTENT) DOWNWARD FLOW BENEATH THE SURFACE, AND A DECREASING VALUE FO THE WAVE CREST WITH DEPTH. THE RATE AT WHICH THE WAVES PROPAGATE IS CALCULATED USING THE METHOD OF CHARACTERISTICS AND IS IN FAIR AGREEMENT WITH THE OBSERVED RATE WHERE THE PERMEABILITY OF THE BULK FIRN WITH ICE LAYERS IS REDUCED BY A FACTOR OF TWO OVER HOMOGENEOUS SNOW SAMPLES STUDIED IN THE LABORATORY. THE THEORY PREDICTS THAT THE WAVES ADVANCE WITH A SHOCK FRONT WHICH GROWS WITH DEPTH. THE SHOCK FRONT IS THOUGHT TO BE ONLY AN APPROXIMATION TO THE ACTUAL PHYSICAL PROCESS. /AUTHOR/
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Supplemental Notes:
- No 296, 16 PP, 10 FIG, 15 REF
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Authors:
- Colbeck, S C
- Publication Date: 1971-8
Media Info
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Flow; Glaciers; Snow; Streamflow; Water; Wave motion
- Uncontrolled Terms: One dimensional flow
- Old TRIS Terms: Method of characteristics
- Subject Areas: Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Maintenance and Preservation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00218871
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Mar 7 1972 12:00AM