Guillaume Jouvet

PhD Research Assistant in applied mathematics to glaciology since October 2006.

Supervisors : Prof. Jacques Rappaz and Dr Marco Picasso.

RESEARCH AREA

Global warming is having unfortunate consequences on glaciers. Therefore, the numerical simulation has become a valuable tool in order to understand the impact of climate change on glaciers. I address the free boundary problem that consists in finding the shape of a glacier over a given period and under given climatic conditions. Glacier surface moves by internal shear and external exchange of mass. Ice is modelled as a non newtonian fluid and the surface changes are described by a Volume Of Fluid (VOF) function. A Finite Element Method (FEM) is coupled with a characteristics method for solving a nonlinear Stokes equation and a transport equation for the VOF. The first application is an inverse problem. It consists in finding a climate parametrization allowing a glacier to fit some of its moraines. The second application consists in the simulation of Rhone glacier (Switzerland) from 1874 to 2100 by using climatic data provided by glaciologists, see next section. Other aspects of my PhD thesis include the investigation of damage mechanics models for the simulation of crevasses, and - on a theoretical level - the proof of the well-posedness of a stationary problem and a priori estimates for the convergence of the FEM.

SIMULATION OF RHONEGLETSCHER (Switzerland)

In collaboration with the laboratory VAW-ETHZ (Matthias Huss and Martin Funk), Rhonegletscher has been simulated from 1874 to 2100.

We have prescribed each year between 2008 and 2100 a mass balance distribution calibrated in the past century and adjusted according to a median climatic scenario. This scenario is based on a temperature increase of 3.8 degree per century and a precipitation decrease of 6 % per century. The simulation anticipates a loss of 50% of the volume by 2060 and forecasts the complete disappearance of Rhonegletscher around 2100.

See the animation from 1874 to 2007 [avi] and from 2008 to 2100 [avi].




	1874		2008		2050		2075		2100


This simulation is the subject to a press release that has been published on the EPFL website of news.

SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION

• Prof. Heinz Blatter (ETH Zurich, Institut f. Atmosphare und Klima).
• Prof. Martin Funk (ETH Zurich, VA f. Wasserbau/Hydrologie/Glaziologie).

TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIP

• Analyse I-II for mathematicians and physicists, teached by Prof. Jacques Rappaz

MASTER'S DISSERTATION

• Optimisation de forme et relaxation pour l'equation des ondes.
  
  Travail de master 2, 2006.
  

  Get it:

  [Memoire]

PUBLICATIONS

• A new algorithm to simulate the dynamics of a glacier: theory and applications
  Guillaume Jouvet, Marco Picasso, Jacques Rappaz, Heinz Blatter
  Published in "Journal of Glaciology", Volume 54(188), 2008. [Pdf]

• Numerical simulation of Rhone's glacier from 1874 to 2100
  Guillaume Jouvet, Matthias Huss, Marco Picasso, Jacques Rappaz, Heinz Blatter
  Published in "Journal of Computational Physics", Volume 228 (17), 2009.
  [ Link]

TALKS

• June 2007 at Kiel in Germany: Workshop "Mathematical Modelling and Simulation of Geophysical Flow Problems".
  
• January 2008 at Zurich in Switzerland: Seminar at the VAW-ETHZ.
  
• March 2008 at Chamonix in France: Alpine Glaciological Meeting 2008.
• April 2008 at Vienna in Austria: European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) 2008.
  
• September 2008 at Tokyo and Toyama in Japan: Two Seminars given.
  
• October 2008 at Zurich in Switzerland: Seminar at the VAW-ETHZ.
  
• February 2009 at Lausanne in Switzerland: Out of the box talks GSA.
  
• April 2009 at Basel in Switzerland: Swiss numerical colloquium.
  
• June 2009 at Berlin in Germany: International Workshop on Reliable methods of Mathematical Modeling (RMMM).
  

  Get it: [Presentation]

POSTERS

• April 2008 at Lausanne in Switzerland : "Journee de la recherche 2008"
  

  Numerical simulation of the Rhonegletscher.

• April 2008 at Fribourg in Switzerland : "Colloque Numerique Suisse 2008"
  

  Numerical simulation of the dynamics of a glacier.

CONTACT

         Guillaume Jouvet

         EPFL (station 8) SB / IACS / ASN      Office MA C2 644
         1015 Lausanne - Switzerland

         E-Mail       guillaume.jouvet@epfl.ch
         Telephone       (+41) 21 693 42 46

ALBUM PHOTO

Click here (restricted access)