Bridging Pore and Grain-Scale Physics to the Changing Cryosphere

Dr. Yue (Olivia) Meng
Assistant Professor
Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering

Tuesday, September 2, 2025
3:30pm
HAMP 1113

Abstract

The Greenland Ice Sheet has become the largest single source of barystatic sea-level rise in the cryosphere. Numerical models are the best tools to make projections of the future of the ice sheet. However, predicting how fast the ice sheet flows, and when does calving occur at glacier margins has proven to be challenging, primarily because of (1) the limited knowledge of the fate of meltwater in the hydrologic system and (2) the poor representation of ice-ocean interactions. In this talk, I will showcase the development of two process-based models for englacial hydrology and ice-ocean interactions, through interdisciplinary lens of porous media flows, granular mechanics, and remote sensing observations. My poromechanical model reveals that surface-to-bed hydrofracture will not occur in ice slab regions until all pore space proximal to the initial flaw has been filled with solid ice. My discrete element model quantifies the seasonal mélange buttressing force that coincides with observed calving dynamics. I will discuss my future research combining modeling, experimenting, machine learning, and remote sensing techniques to bridge pore and grain-scale physics to the changing cryosphere.

Bio

Yue (Olivia) Meng is currently an assistant professor in Department of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. She was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geophysics at Stanford University and Princeton University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Ruben Juanes. Her Ph.D. work focused on developing experimental, numerical and mathematical models to understand interactions between multiphase flow and granular mechanics, with application in geological carbon sequestration and methane hydrates. During her postdoc, she has been collaborating with climate scientists, physicists, and computer scientists to develop process-based models for calving at tidewater glaciers. She is broadly interested in soft earth geophysics with a current focus on the hydrology of ice sheets and ice-ocean interactions.