The ice floes are characterized by horizontal large surfaces (up to a few tens of kilometers) and a low thickness (a few tens of meters) and appear in the zones close to the poles when strong marine or wind currents prevent the appearance of more consequent blocks of ice (icebergs for example).
These ice floes tend to rather strongly move according to the forces outsides which they undergo (running marine, wind, tide, etc.). These ice floes thus either will separate in the ocean or to agglomerate in narrow fjords or rivers (St Laurent in Quebec). During an agglomeration, the contact points between several ice floes will undergo a mechanical pressure favorable to the fusion of those and rigid points thus will appear making them interdependent.
These ice floes thus will grow, decrease, move according to the local weather conditions. The result of all these interactions can lead to a blocking of the inland waterway, collisions with punts forms offshore oil rig, etc….
Indeed of very large ice floes can be very detrimental for their immediate environment.
The modeling of these phenomena is thus essential and can be carried out by simple tools of “D.E.M.†(Discrete Element Method).
