Ice Engineering - A Heat Sink Method for Subsurface Ice Thickening.

• Main Author: Barthelemy,J. L.
• Other Authors: CIVIL ENGINEERING LAB (NAVY) PORT HUENEME CALIF
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1976
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Air Condition; Heating; Lighting & Ventilating; *ICE FORMATION; *ICE; *HEAT SINKS; POLAR REGIONS; THICKNESS; COASTAL REGIONS; AIR; GROWTH(GENERAL); FIELD TESTS; HEAT EXCHANGERS; FREEZING; CONSTRUCTION; ENGINEERING; MATHEMATICAL PREDICTION; PLATFORMS; SHEETS; ROADS; CONVECTION(HEAT TRANSFER); RUNWAYS; SEA WATER; SUBSURFACE; REINFORCING MATERIALS; REFRIGERANTS; RECIRCULATION; *Ice sheets; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*; Ice; Ice Sheet; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA028619; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA028619

Ice sheets are being used as runways and as roadbeds for aircraft and heavy-haul transportation vehicles in the Arctic and Antarctic. Thin ice often makes operations on the ice sheets costly and dangerous. The Civil Engineering Laboratory has developed methods of freezing seawater at coastal polar locations to thicken natural ice formations into useful platform foundations. This report documents the process of thickening ice by the use of freezing cells to accelerate ice growth on the underside of an ice sheet. The freezing cell described in this report is driven by density differences: liquid above is cooled by the air, and liquid below is warmed by the seawater medium. (Author)