NSF PLR 1847173 – CAREER: Fracture Mechanics of Antarctic Ice Shelves and Glaciers – Representing Iceberg Calving in Ice Sheet Models and Developing Cyberlearning Tools for Outreach

Overview

Iceberg calving is a complex natural fracture process and a dominant cause of mass loss from the floating ice shelves on the margins of the Antarctic ice sheet. There is concern that rapid changes at these ice shelves can destabilize parts of the ice sheet and accelerate their contribution to sea-level rise. The goal of this project is to understand and simulate the fracture mechanics of calving and to develop physically-consistent calving schemes for ice-sheet models. This would enable more reliable estimation of Antarctic mass loss by reducing the uncertainty in projections. The two research aims are to:

(1) investigate crevasse propagation in viscous glacier ice using conduct full-Stokes fracture mechanics models; and

(2) develop fracture-physics-based calving schemes for depth-integrated, higher-order Stokes flow approximations in ice sheet models.

This project aims to provide fundamental understanding of iceberg calving by advancing the frontiers in computational fracture mechanics and nonlinear continuum mechanics and translating it to glaciology. The project investigates crevasse propagation using poro-damage mechanics models for hydrofracture that are consistent with nonlinear viscous ice rheology, along with the thermodynamics of refreezing in narrow crevasses at meter length scales. It will develop a fracture-physics based scheme to better represent calving in ice-sheet models using a multiscale method. The effort will also address research questions related to calving behavior of floating ice shelves and glaciers, with the goal of enabling more reliable prediction of calving fronts in whole-Antarctic ice-sheet simulations over decadal-to-millennial time scales.

The research plan is integrated with an education and outreach plan that aims to (1) enhance computational modeling skills of engineering and Earth science students through a cross-college course and a high-performance computing workshop and (2) increase participation and diversity in engineering and sciences by providing interdisciplinary research opportunities to undergraduates and by deploying new cyberlearning tools to engage local K-12 students in the Metro Nashville Public Schools in computational science and engineering, and glaciology.

Publications

Duddu, R., Jimenez, S., & Bassis, J. N. (2020). A nonlocal continuum poro-damage mechanics model for hydrofracturing of surface crevasses in grounded glaciers. Journal of Glaciology, 66(257): 415-429, 2020. doi: 10.1017/jog.2020.16 (link)
Sun, X., Duddu, R., and Hirshikesh (2021). A poro-damage phase field model for hydrofracturing of glacier crevasses. Extreme Mechanics Letters, 2021. doi:10.1016/j.eml.2021.101277 (link)
Huth, A., Duddu, R. & Smith, B. E. (2021a). A generalized interpolation material point method for shallow ice shelves. 1: Shallow shelf approximation and ice thickness evolution. Journal of Advances in Modeling of Earth Systems, 13(8), e2020MS002277. doi: 10.1029/2020MS002277 (link)
Huth, A., Duddu, R. & Smith, B. E. (2021b). A generalized interpolation material point method for shallow ice shelves. 2: Anisotropic nonlocal damage mechanics and rift propagation. Journal of Advances in Modeling of Earth Systems, 13(8), e2020MS002292. doi: 10.1029/2020MS002292 (link)
Clayton, T., Duddu, R., Siegert, M. & Martínez-Pañeda, E. (2022) A stress-based poro-damage phase field model for hydrofracturing of creeping glaciers and ice shelves. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 272, 108693. doi: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2022.108693 (link)
Gao, Y, Ghosh, G., Jimenez, S., & Duddu, R. (2023). A finite-element-based cohesive zone model of water-filled surface crevasse propagation in floating ice tongues. IEEE Computing in Science & Engineering, 25(3): 8–16. doi: 10.1109/MCSE.2023.3315661 (link)
Bird, R. E., Augarde, C. E., Coombs, W. M., Duddu, R., Giani, S., Huynh, P. T. & Sims, B. (2023). An hp-adaptive discontinuous Galerkin method for phase field fracture. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 416, 116336. doi: 10.1016/j.cma.2023.116336 (link)
Huth A., Duddu, R., Smith, B. & Sergienko, O. (2023). Simulating the processes controlling ice-shelf rift paths using damage mechanics. Journal of Glaciology, 69(278), 1915-1928. doi: 10.1017/jog.2023.71 (link)
Clayton, T., Duddu, R., Hageman, T. & Martínez-Pañeda, E. (2024). The influence of firn layer material properties on surface crevasse propagation in glaciers and ice shelves. The Cryosphere, 18, 5573–5593. doi: 10.5194/tc-18-5573-2024 (link)
Hageman, T., Mejía, J., Duddu, R., & Martínez-Pañeda, E. (2024). Ice viscosity governs hydraulic fracture that causes rapid drainage of supraglacial lakes. The Cryosphere, 18(9), 3991-4009. doi: 10.5194/tc-18-3991-2024 (link)
Gupta, A., Nguyen, D. T., Hirshikesh & Duddu, R. (2024). Damage mechanics challenge: Predictions from an adaptive finite element implementation of the stress-based phase-field fracture model. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 306, 110252. doi: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2024.110252 (link)
Navidtehrani, Y., Duddu, R. & Martínez-Pañeda, E. (2024). Damage Mechanics Challenge: Predictions based on the phase field fracture model. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 301, 110046. doi: 10.1016/j.engfracmech.2024.110046 (link)
Bassis, J.N., Crawford, A., Kachuck, S.B., Benn, D.I., Walker, C., Millstein, J., Duddu, R., Astrom, J., Fricker, H. & Luckman, A. (2024). Stability of Ice Shelves and Ice Cliffs in a Changing Climate. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 52. doi: 10.1146/annurev-earth-040522-122817 (link)
Nguyen, D. T., Gupta, A., Duddu, R. and Annavarapu, C. (2025). An adaptive mesh refinement algorithm for stress-based phase field fracture models for heterogeneous media: Application using FEniCS to ice-rock cliff failures. Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, 244, 104311. doi: 10.1016/j.finel.2024.104311 (link)
Ranganathan, M., Robel, A. A., Huth, A., and Duddu, R. (2025). Glacier damage evolution over ice flow timescales. The Cryosphere, 19, 1599–1619. doi: 10.5194/tc-19-1599-2025 (link)
Clayton, T., Duddu, R., Hageman, T. and Martínez-Pañeda, E. (2025). Modeling ice cliff stability using a new Mohr-Coulomb-based phase field fracture model. Journal of Glaciology, 1-34, doi: 10.1017/jog.2025.21 (link)
Karuthedath, P. L., Gupta, A., Mamindlapelly, B., Chowdhury, R., & Duddu, R. (2025). A generalized framework towards continuity and computational efficiency in topology optimization using multi-patch isogeometric methods. Engineering with Computers, 1-50. doi: 10.1007/s00366-025-02133-z (link)
Saurabh, S., Gupta, A., Chowdhury, R., & Duddu, R. (2025). Robust topology optimization for uncertainty in load positions of transient dynamic loading. Reliability Engineering \& System Safety, 264(PB): 111440. doi: 10.1016/j.ress.2025.111440 (link)
Sutcliffe, S. J., Coombs, W. M., Zhang, W., Duddu, R., & Augarde, C. E. (2026a). Modelling cliff collapse and run-out with the material point method. Computers and Geotechnics, 189, 107608. doi: 10.1016/j.compgeo.2025.107608 (link)
Sutcliffe, S. J., Coombs, W. M., Zhang, W., Duddu, R., Pretti, G., & Augarde, C. E. (2026b). A Matrix-Free, Scalable, and Robust Implicit Material Point Method,” International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 127, (14): e70384. doi: 10.1002/nme.70384 (link)

Conference/Workshop Presentations

Duddu, R. Modeling tensile and shear fracture in ice using damage mechanics. Community Earth System Model (CESM) Annual Workshop, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, June 17 – 19, 2019.
V. K. Devendiran and R. Duddu. “An appropriate crack driving force function for the phase field approach to model mixed-mode brittle fracture.” ASCE EMI 2019 Conference, Pasadena, CA, June 18 – June 21, 2019.
Duddu, R., Jimenez, S., Huth, A., and Bassis, J. N. A poro-damage approach to simulating hydrofracture of glaciers and ice shelves. West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Workshop 2019, Camp Cedar Glen, Julian, CA, October 16 – 18, 2019.
Huth, A., Duddu, R., and Smith, B. E. A generalized interpolation material point (GIMP) method for shallow shelf approximation of ice flow. Community Earth System Model (CESM) Annual Workshop, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, February 10 – 12, 2020.

Seminar Talks

Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Flow and Fracture Using Computation and Data Assimilation, School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, July 9, 2026
Modeling crevasse propagation in glaciers using phase field fracture models, Joint Engineering and Earth Science Scoping Workshop, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom, June 24, 2026
Modeling Hydraulic Fracture of Glaciers Using Damage Mechanics, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, April 9, 2026
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, March 30, 2026
Damage mechanics modeling the hydrofracture in glaciers and ice shelves, International Glaciological Society (IGS) Global Seminar Series, Online, February 11, 2026.
Damage Mechanics Modeling of Fracture Propagation in Glaciers and Ice-shelves, Interdisciplinary Centre for Water Research (ICWaR), Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, January 16, 2025.
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, March 28, 2025.
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering University of Minnesota, April 16, 2025.
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, June 12, 2025.
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University London, July 4, 2025.
Adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates for the phase field fracture model, Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, New York University Abu Dhabi, October 2, 2025.
Modeling hydraulic fracture of glaciers using continuum damage mechanics, Earth Systems Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, October 1, 2025.
Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Flow and Fracture using Computation and Data. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. University of Wisconsin Madison, October 28, 2025.
Phase field models of fracture and corrosion: adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, August 2, 2024.
Phase field models of fracture and corrosion: adaptive finite element methods and machine-learning-based surrogates, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Computational Mechanics Seminar Series, virtual seminar, August 8, 2024.
Computational Physics and Machine Learning Approaches for Monitoring and Modeling Ice Sheet Evolution, Shanks Workshop on Dynamical Sampling, Frame Theory, Harmonic Analysis, and Applications, Vanderbilt University, March 1, 2024.
Modeling Antarctic Ice-shelf Calving and Stability (MAGICS) using computation, data and machine learning, ICESat-2 Applications Workshop, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Online, June 3-4, 2024.
Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Flow and Fracture Processes using Computation, Data, and Machine Learning, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, March 7, 2024.
Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Flow and Fracture Processes using Computation, Data, and Machine Learning, USACM Earth and Energy Systems Webinar, January 22, 2024.
Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture using Continuum Damage Mechanics, Department of Earth and Climate Science, Indian Institute for Science, Education and Research (IISER) Pune, January 5, 2023.
Continuum damage mechanics modeling of fracture, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras on January 11, 2023.
Forward and Inverse Modeling of Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture based on Continuum Damage Mechanics, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras on January 17, 2023.
Forward and Inverse Modeling of Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture, Divecha Center for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on January 23, 2023.
Representing fracture within ice flow models: challenges and opportunities, Department of Geography, Durham University, June 13, 2023.
Continuum Damage Mechanics Based Modeling of Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture, Department of Engineering, Durham University, June 13, 2023.
Representing fracture within ice flow models: challenges and opportunities, Department of Geography, Durham University, June 14, 2023.
Forward and Inverse Modeling of Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture, Imperial College London (ICL), June 22, 2023.
Phase field models of fracture and corrosion: adaptive finite element methods and machine learning bases surrogates. Naval Research Laboratory, virtual seminar, December 20, 2023
Modeling Glacier and Ice-shelf Fracture and Stability using Continuum Poro-Damage Approaches, Ohio State University Byrd Polar Research Center, November 2, 2022.
Modeling Antarctic Glacier and Iceshelf Calving and Stability (MAGICS) using computation, data, and machine learning. Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL) Bogota, virtual seminar, April 27, 2022.
Modeling Fracture Propagation in Marine-Terminating Glaciers and Ice Shelves Using Continuum Damage Mechanics. Biweekly Solid Earth and Planetary Physics Seminar (BISEPPS), Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, July 1, 2020.
Simulating rift propagation in Antarctic ice shelves using nonlocal continuum damage mechanics, Marine Geology and Geophysics Group, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York, NY, October 14, 2020.
Modeling crevasse propagation in glaciers due to hydromechanical fracture. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, August 22, 2019.

Code and Datasets

The phase field fracture models and adaptive mesh refinement algorithms developed by Gupta et al. (2024, 2026) and Nguyen et al. (2025) are implemented in the open-source finite element software FEniCS (https://fenicsproject.org). The simulation data and input files used in this study are publicly available through Zenodo https://zenodo.org/records/18435069. The source code for the proposed adaptive phase-field fracture framework, including its implementation for all glacier case studies, is currently available through GitHub https://github.com/iitrabhi/adaptive-phase-field-fracture. The repository contains the full implementation, mesh files, and scripts required to run the simulations and reproduce the results presented in Gupta et al. (2026).

All the data from the publications in collaboration with Durham University are archived in public repositories. All figure data from Bird et al. (2023) is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.15128/r2pz50gw14x. All data created in Sutcliffe et al. (2026a) are openly available at doi.org/10.15128/r2rn301147g. For the purpose of open access, a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence was applied to the Author Accepted Manuscript version arising. Software used for Sutcliff et al. (2026a) is available at https://github.com/samjvsutcliffe/cl-mpm.All the data that support the findings of Sutcliffe et al. (2026b) are openly available in Durham Collections at https://doi.org/10.15128/r1f4752g845.

All the data and/or code from the publications in collaboration with University of Oxford and Imperial College are archived in various public repositories. The MATLAB code described in Hageman et al. (2026) used to generate the results is available through Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13629447, where documentation for this code and post-processing scripts are also provided. The analytic expressions for the stress state are provided in a MATLAB script to plot the stress–depth relations from Fig. 3 in Clayton et al. (2024) for arbitrary input parameters. This script additionally performs the LEFM analysis, producing the crevasse depths from Fig. 4 in Clayton et al. (2024). The corresponding code is provided at Github https://github.com/T-Clayton/LEFM_Firn_Inclusions (last access: 19 November 2024) and Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13911830 (Clayton and Hageman, 2024). No new datasets were used in this work, except for those generated and reproducible via the developed code.

The shallow shelf approximation based ice shelf damage model developed Ranganathan is implemented in the open-source software Icepack built using another open-source software Firedrake (https://www.firedrakeproject.org/). There were two models used in Ranganathan et al. (2025) both of which are accessible in public repositories. The flow-line model, used in Sect. 2, is published via Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5245271. The open-source ice sheet model Icepack, used in Sects. 3 and 4 of Ranganathan et al. (2025), is available at https://icepack.github.io/, along with the documentation and tutorials on the use of the model. The scripts for running both the flow-line model and the icepack simulations, along with h5 files that contain the simulation output for all of the icepack simulations presented in the main text and scripts to plot all of the figures in Sects. 3 and 4, are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11623054. No new observational data were produced in this study.

The shallow shelf approximation based ice shelf fracture model developed by Huth is implemented in the open-source finite element software Elmer/Ice (https://cheese2.eu/codes/elmer-ice/). All the model source code, input data, and experiment setups needed to run the rifting simulations in Huth et al., (2023) are available through Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8250782. The simulations in Huth et al. (2021a,b) can be reproduced using the experimental setups and model source code available at Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4657848.

Educational and Cyberlearning Tools

One-day phase field short course – https://abhigupta.io/phasefieldfracture/

This one-day short course presents the mathematical formulation and the associated numerical implementation of the phase-field approach to fracture from a macroscopic point of view. The course focuses on elastic brittle materials, such as glass, ceramics, ice/rock, and elastomers, subjected to monotonic quasi-static mechanical loading, for which the fundamental theoretical principles are most advanced and rigorous; whereas extensions to dynamic fracture, thermo-mechanical fracture, and ductile materials are briefly discussed. The casting of the brittle phase-field fracture model in a finite element formulation is discussed along with the implementation in Python (using the FEniCS library) to solve representative boundary-value problems involving fracture nucleation and propagation in both linear elastic and finite elastic materials. Adaptive mesh refinement and coarsening method in FEniCSX is also discussed to accelerate large computations.

This course was offered in person at EMI 2026 in University of Colorado, Boulder, with more than 60 attendees. The course material included lecture notes/slides in addition to the Python codes that will be used for the live demonstration.

Five-day FEniCS short course – https://abhigupta.io/fenics-workshop/

This is a five-day course focused on solving partial differential equations (PDEs) using the FEniCS software package. The goal is to introduce the students to PDEs encountered in various engineering and science disciplines, such as solid mechanics, heat transfer, and mass transport. Therefore, this course is of broad interest to postgraduate students and early career researchers focusing on structural mechanics, materials and manufacturing, and geoscience applications. Each day covers different topics and PDEs, providing an understanding of the background physics, corresponding model equations and their finite element solution. Specifically, students will learn to derive the weak form from the strong form of various governing equations, linearization of nonlinear PDEs, best practices for coding and using auto-differentiation in FEniCS for evaluating numerical tangents. Students will participate in hands-on computer lab sessions where they will develop the code for solving diffusive transport, elasticity and thermoelasticity problems.

This course was offered in person at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 2023 and Indian Institute of Science Bangalore in 2024 with more than 120 attendees. All the codes, tutorials and exercises on the website continue to benefit several students learning remotely.

Students

Vignesh Kumar Devendiran

M. S. student, Graduated: May 2019 (Non-thesis)

Research project: Modeling mixed-mode fracture in ice under biaxial compression in using phase field damage models

Xiangming Sun

Ph. D. student, Graduated: December 2020

Thesis title: Modeling of Material Degradation using Decoupled Finite Element Approaches: Applications to Localized Corrosion of Iron Alloys and Hydraulic Fracture of Glaciers

Gourab Ghosh

Ph. D. student, Graduated: May 2021

Thesis title: Robust Finite Element Implementation of Damage-based Cohesive Zone Models: Application to Composite Delamination and Hydrofracturing of Glaciers