Carolin Willibald

Snow micro-mechanics is my field of studies. I combine 3D micro-computed tomography imaging of snow microstructures with mechanical experiments, to relate microstructural and mechanical properties of snow.

Intensive 3D image analysis is necessary for exploring and extracting key parameters from the 3D microstructure, to examine their characterization and prepare the images as input for numerical models.

Snow mechanical computer models (DEM) are validated with my experimental data and a detailed representation of respective microstructure. We work on an approach to include the snow microstructure efficiently into numerical models.

Sintering of ice plays a central role in the experiments and raised my special curiosity.

Ice beads are my guinea pigs as spherical model snow, besides natural snow types.