Breaking Ice with Explosives

• Main Author: Mellor, Malcolm
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1982
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; Statistics and Probability; Ammunition and Explosives; Explosions; *EXPLOSION EFFECTS; *ICE; *ICE BREAKUP; *EXPLOSIVE CHARGES; CRATERING; DEPTH; UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS; REGRESSION ANALYSIS; THICKNESS; MATHEMATICAL PREDICTION; BLAST LOADS; SCALE MODELS; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; CURVES(GEOMETRY); AST42; PE62730A; WU010; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA123761; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA123761

The use of explosives to break floating ice sheets is described, and test data are used to develop design curves that predict explosives effects as ice thickness, charge size, and charge depth vary. Application of the curves to practical problems is illustrated by numerical examples. The general features of underwater explosions are reviewed and related to ice blasting. Quasi-static plate theory is considered, and is judged to be inapplicable to explosive cratering of ice plates. The specific energy for optimized ice blasting is found to compare quite favorably with the specific energy of icebreaking ships. All available field data for ice blasting are tabulated in appendices, together with details of the regression analyses from which the design curves are generated.