The brittle compressive failure of fresh-water columnar ice under biaxial loading

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Acta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0956-7151(93)90347-U· OSTI ID:6269482

Smith, T R; Schulson, E M ^[1]

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1. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States). Thayer School of Engineering

The brittle compressive failure of fresh-water, columnar ice was investigated under biaxial loading at a strain rate of [dot [epsilon]] = 10[sup [minus]2]s[sup [minus]1] at temperatures of [minus]10 and [minus]40C. Tests were performed through proportional loading over the range 0[<=]R<1 where R is the ratio of the minor to major compressive stress, i.e. R = [sigma][sub 2]/[sigma][sub 1]. Two types of confinement were considered, across the long axis of the columnar grains (type-A) and along the columns (type-B). For both types the major stress was orthogonal to the columns. The results reveal two failure regimes under cross-column loading: the failure stress first increases rapidly with increasing R[sub A] in the range 0 [<=] R[sub A] [<=] R[sub t], and then decreases as R[sub A] increases further. The transition ratio, R[sub t], decreases from [approximately]0.2 at [minus]10C to [approximately]0.1 at [minus]40C. Correspondingly, the failure mode changes from splitting along the columns along the loading direction at zero confinement to shear faulting in the loading plane at 0 < R[sub A] [<=] R[sub t] to a combined mode of splitting across the columns and shear faulting out of the loading plane at R[sub A] > R[sub t]. The failure envelope at both temperatures resembles a truncated Coulomb envelope. Under along-column confinement (type-B) neither the failure stress nor the failure mode depends upon the confining stress. High-speed photography and thin-section examinations revealed that wing cracking and localized fragmentation are important elements in the failure process. The observations are explained in terms of two failure mechanisms; viz. frictional crack sliding and contact tensile fractures.

• OSTI ID: 6269482
• Journal Information: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States), Journal Name: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia; (United States) Vol. 41:1; ISSN 0956-7151; ISSN AMATEB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
360603* -- Materials-- Properties
BRITTLENESS
COMPRESSION
CRACKS
DEFORMATION
FAILURES
ICE
IMAGES
MATERIALS TESTING
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
STRAIN RATE
TENSILE PROPERTIES
TESTING