  The marginal ice zone is a highly dynamical region where sea ice and ocean
waves interact. Large-scale sea ice models only compute domain-averaged
responses. As the majority of the marginal ice zone consists of mobile ice
floes surrounded by grease ice, finer-scale modelling is needed to resolve
variations of its mechanical properties, wave-induced pressure gradients and
drag forces acting on the ice floes. A novel computational fluid dynamics
approach is presented, that considers the heterogeneous sea ice material
composition and accounts for the wave-ice interaction dynamics. Results show,
after comparing three realistic sea ice layouts with similar concentration and
floe diameter, that the discrepancy between the domain-averaged temporal stress
and strain rate evolutions increases for decreasing wave period. Furthermore,
strain rate and viscosity are mostly affected by the variability of ice floe
shape and diameter.
