Dr. Andrew E. Slaughter has been awarded an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, to be carried out at Cornell University, to explore new methods for modeling the behavior of snow. The goal of the work is to research the use of stochastic finite element methods to model the evolution of the snow micro-structure including phase change within the snow. A model of this type would improve the current understanding of snow metamorphism by providing a means to monitor the evolution of the ice matrix within the snow while accounting for uncertainties in the system. Uncertainties associated with the snow micro-structure include the random initial crystallographic orientation, a limited understanding of ice crystal growth kinetics, and perturbations that exist in the environmental conditions on a local scale. The technique proposed for exploration includes a deterministic method capable of tracking heat, mass, and momentum transport efficiently in both two- and three-dimensions. The result is expected to be a model that produces a set of possible snow micro-structures. The solution approach is novel and will reveal new insights in the underlying physical phenomena of snow metamorphism, which is of critical importance to climatology, hydrology, and avalanche risk reduction.
In addition to the proposed model, an educational tool will be developed that is a simplified representation of the aforementioned model. This model will be capable of demonstrating the evolution of the snow micro-structure to introduce physics concepts. Additionally, the research will provide a challenging research and education experience for Dr. Slaughter at a world-class institution, Cornell University. To this end, the experience gained through this project affords Dr. Slaughter the opportunity to learn cutting-edge techniques in computational mechanics.
