Ice Control Structures using steel nets

• Main Authors: Brian Morse, Jean Francoeur, Hugues Delcourt, Michel Leclerc, Québec Qc
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Lever; Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.513.5169; http://cripe.civil.ualberta.ca/Downloads/12th_Workshop/Morse-et-al-2003.pdf

Ice control structures (ICS) come in many shapes and sizes. Their deployment over the last twenty years has almost always provided some degree of protection to local residents, although, in most of the seven cases we studied, their performance was less than optimal. Based at work done at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Lever et al. (1997 & 1999) have explained their functionality and have optimized their design. The CRREL ICS consists primarily of a series of piers forming a comb-like structure that arrests ice jams. However, recent physical model studies at Laval University using polyethylene ice suggest that ICS’s using either (1) widely-spaced piers supporting steel nets or (2) cylindrical steel ice booms supporting steel nets could represent more effective and economical structures for some applications. This paper presents these ICS-steel net structures, their performance under laboratory conditions and discusses potential implementation opportunities and problems. 1.