Here A and n are the creep parameters, τb the basal shear stress, and c a

coefficient dependent
on n and the ratio of λ to the ice thickness. Kamb (1970) and Lliboutry (1987)
derived relations
of the same form.
That sliding should depend on τ n
b rather than τ
[n+1]/2
b is of course expected fromWeertman’s
theory when ice moves past bumps solely by ice deformation. Equation 7.10 predicts
that ub
varies as R−[n+1] whereas the term in Eq. 7.5 is R−2n. This difference arises from
the difference
between the tombstone and sinusoidal models of the bed.
Gudmundsson (1997) also treated ice as a nonlinear fluid and ignored regelation but
used
a numerical finite-element technique to simulate sliding of ice over an undulating
bed. The
numerical approach circumvented the approximation of small roughness and avoided
some of
the questionable assumptions related to the treatment of nonlinearity. The
calculations showed
that, for small roughness, sliding velocities vary inversely with roughness raised
to the power
n+1, as predicted by the analytical approaches.With a large roughness, however, the
parameter c
in Eq. 7.10 increases with the roughness, if n > 1; sliding occurs more rapidly on
a rough bed
than predicted by the approximate theories. For n = 3 and a rough bed (take R =
0.4), the value
of c is about ten times larger than for a smooth bed. Results also showed that, for
sinusoidal bed
undulations, the ice can keep recirculating in the troughs and never join the main
flow, if the
ratio of amplitude to wavelength exceeds a critical value of about 1:3.
7.2.4