RING-TENSILE-STRENGTH AND FLEXURE-STRENGTH CORRELATIONS OF SEA ICE

A quick, accurate method of estimating the flexure strength of sea ice is investigated. The report analyzes and discusses two methods of correlation between the ring-tensile strength and flexure strength of antarctic sea ice. The indirect method, using the common parameter brine volume of sea ice, is considered less accurate than the direct method, which associates the data for common calendar periods for both strengths. Neither correlation should be used without taking a larger quantity of ice samples to derive a well-averaged ring-tensile value from the lower one-half thickness of the ice sheet. It is recommended that an effort be made to develop a system for predicting the flexure strength of an ice sheet by correlating the flexure strength with brine volume. This would eliminate the need for any strength testing and would simplify the field work to taking only temperature and salinity measurements. (Author)