TY - THES A1 - Plate, Carolin T1 - Fracture Mechanical Analysis of Failure Processes in Antarctic Ice Shelves N2 - This thesis treats the application of configurational forces for the evaluation of fracture processes in Antarctic ice shelves. FE simulations are used to analyze the influence of geometric scales, material parameters and boundary conditions on single surface cracks. A break-up event at the Wilkins Ice Shelf that coincided with a major temperature drop motivates the consideration of frost wedging as a mechanism for ice shelf disintegration. An algorithm for the evaluation of the crack propagation direction is used to analyze the horizontal growth of rifts. Using equilibrium considerations for a viscoelastic fluid, a method is introduced to compute viscous volume forces from measured velocity fields as loads for a linear elastic fracture mechanical analysis. T3 - Forschungsbericht / Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Lehrstuhl für Technische Mechanik - 11 KW - fracture mechanics KW - finite element method KW - configurational forces KW - ice shelves Y1 - 2015 UR - https://kluedo.ub.uni-kl.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/4236 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:386-kluedo-42367 SN - 978-3-942695-11-4 ER -