A Review of Sintering in Seasonal Snow.

• Main Author: Colbeck, Samuel C.
• Other Authors: COLD REGIONS RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING LAB HANOVER NH
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Snow; Ice and Permafrost; *SNOW; *BONDING; LIQUIDS; WATER; SHAPE; SATURATION; TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS; MOISTURE; DRY MATERIALS; SINTERING; CONCAVE BODIES; PE61102A; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA335556; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA335556

Strength and electrical pathways develop in snow as bonds grow among grains. Strong ice-to-ice bonds form in wet snow at low liquid contents but not in highly saturated wet snow. In freely draining wet snow, grain clusters form, and these require a certain configuration among the three phases of water. This depends somewhat on the number of grains in the cluster, but always leads to bonding. In dry snow, bonds form more slowly, but considerable strength can develop as long as rounded grains develop. The rate of bond growth is probably controlled by the temperature gradient, because both grains and bonds are observed to grow very slowly in dry snow in the absence of a temperature gradient. The basic shape of the bonds is dictated by the geometrical requirements of grain-boundary grooves and is not a simple concave neck. In dry snow, this shape, and possibly the processes, have been misunderstood.