Title: Comparative study of the brittle-ductile transition between level ice and rafted ice based on uniaxial compression experiments

Authors: Xiaodong Chen; Anliang Wang; Shunying Ji

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China ' National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, Beijing, 110081, China ' State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

Abstract: To investigate the difference between level and rafted ice, field tests were performed on both level ice and artificial rafted ice in the Bohai Sea. In this area, the level ice owns a typical S2 columnar structure while the artificial rafted ice displays a 'sandwich' structure consisting of a strong upper part, weak lower part, and freeze bonding in the middle. Both types of ice were subjected to a compressive load that was applied in parallel to the grain columns. Both ice types failed in ductile mode at low strain rate, and brittle mode at high strain rate. The sandwich structure does not influence the compressive strength of the rafted ice in the ductile mode. The rafted ice is severely weakened by failure in brittle mode. The two types of ice have similar strength in ductile failure mode, while the rafted ice is significantly weaker in brittle failure mode.

Keywords: sea ice; compression strength; brittle-ductile transition; rafted ice; strain rate; fieldwork; mechanical property; Bohai Sea; failure mode.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSI.2021.125797

International Journal of Materials and Structural Integrity, 2021 Vol.14 No.2/3/4, pp.255 - 272

Received: 26 Aug 2019
Accepted: 30 Dec 2019
Published online: 29 Sep 2022 *

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