Analysis of scale effect in ice flexural strength

• Main Author: Aly, Mohamed
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Memorial University of Newfoundland 2018
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/13570/; https://research.library.mun.ca/13570/1/thesis.pdf

Ice flexural strength is an important parameter in the assessment of ice loads on the hulls of ice-class ships, sloped offshore structures, or sloped bridge piers. While scale effects in compressive ice strength are well known, scale effects in ice flexural strength are not proven. To investigate scale effects during flexural failure of both freshwater and saline ice, a comprehensive up-to-date database of beam flexural strength measurements has been compiled. The database includes 2073 freshwater ice beam tests between 0.00016 to 2.197 m³ volumes, and 2843 sea-ice beam tests between 0.00048 to 59.87 m³ volumes. The data show a considerable decrease in flexural strength as the specimen size increases, when examined over a large range of scales. Empirical models of freshwater ice flexural strength as a function of beam volume, and of saline ice as function of beam and brine volumes have been developed using regression analysis. For freshwater ice, the scale-dependent flexural strength is given as: σ