ICE ENGINEERING, TENSILE AND BENDING PROPERTIES OF SEA ICE GROWN IN A CONFINED SYSTEM

The salinity, density, and petrographic structure of sea ice grown in a confined system can be closely identified with the characteristics of sea ice formed in a natural environment. This observation was made for ice 44 centimeters thick. The tensile strength was found to be more dependent on the orientation of the grain and subgrain structure than it was on temperature. The ice had a mean horizontal tensile strength of 67 psi at both -10C and -20C and of 78 psi at -27C. The mean vertical tensile strength was 152 psi at -10C, 163 psi at -20C, and 208 psi at -27C. The grain size or density of the ice did not have any appreciable effect on the tensile strength. The bending creep from single-point loading of simple ice beams was similar to the high-temperature creep behavior of other solid materials; i.e., the creep generally progressed through three stages: primary, secondary, and tertiary or the creep-rupture phase. (Author)