Wedging action during vertical penetration of floating ice sheets

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:175218

Sodhi, D S ^[1]

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1. Army Cold Region Research and Engineering Lab., Hanover, NH (United States)

In cold regions, ice covers on large bodies of water are often used as roads, airfields, and construction platforms. For safe transportation and placement of loads on a floating ice sheet, it is important that there is a sufficient margin of safety between the breakthrough loads and the actual load. Existing failure criteria can only predict the load for the occurrence of the first crack, when maximum stress in an ice sheet exceeds the tensile strength. From full-scale and small-scale tests, we know that the ultimate load to cause complete penetration of a floating ice sheet is much higher than that to cause the first crack. This can be attributed to wedging action during deformation of a radially cracked ice sheet. Small-scale experiments were conducted with freshwater ice in the basin to understand the wedging action during vertical loading of a floating ice sheet. Results of the following series of experiments will be presented: (a) beams with fixed and free ends, (b) beams with an apparatus inserted to measure in-plane forces during vertical loading, and (c) vertical downward loading of floating ice sheets with both fixed and free boundaries. A free ice sheet will fail by propagation of radial cracks all the way to the ice sheet boundary, whereas an ice sheet remaining attached to the basin wall will inhibit the propagation of radial cracks, and will induce wedging action to take place. The difference between the two penetration forces can be attributed to wedging action based on the results of these tests, an improved theoretical model of the breakthrough process will be attempted.

• OSTI ID: 175218
• Report Number(s): CONF-950686--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CONSTRUCTION
CRACK PROPAGATION
DEFORMATION
ICE
TENSILE PROPERTIES