A thermomechanical model for frost heave and subglacial frozen fringe

Ice-infiltrated sediment, known as a frozen fringe, leads to phenomena such as frost heave, ice lenses, and meters of debris-rich ice under glaciers. Here we study the fluid physics of interstitial freezing water in sediments and focus on the conditions relevant for subglacial environments. We describe the thermomechanics of liquid water flow through and freezing in ice-saturated frozen sediments. The force balance that governs the frozen fringe thickness depends on the weight of the overlying material, the thermomolecular force between ice and sediments across premelted films of liquid, and the water pressure within liquid films that is required by flow according to Darcy's law. We combine this mechanical model with an enthalpy method which conserves energy across phase change interfaces on a fixed computational grid. The force balance and enthalpy model together determine the evolution of the frozen fringe thickness and our simulations predict frost heave rates and ice lens spacing. We explicitly account for the formation of ice lenses, regions of pure ice that cleave the fringe at the depth where the interparticle force vanishes. Our model results allow us to predict the thickness of a frozen fringe and the spacing of ice lenses at the base of glaciers.