Sea ice grows thermodynamically until heat flux from, and conductive heat loss to, the ocean are balanced. In the Arctic this equilibrium thickness reaches 2-3 m. Thicker ice and especially morphological features are the product of dynamic deformation. About 70% of the Arctic sea ice volume evolves from deformation processes. These need to be represented in a dynamical sea ice model in order to cover dynamical growth and lead opening. Due to convergent and shear drift ice floes collide and raft on top of each other or pile up in broken blocks, so-called ridges. Here, three different ways to incorporate ridge build up and development of a deformed ice class into a numerical sea ice model for the Arctic are compared. Ridge density, number of ridges per kilometer along a random profile, is used as variable of comparison.