Effects of sample size, centrifugal acceleration and brine inclusions on elastic modulus of sea ice

• Main Authors: Lau, M., Jones, S. J., Phillips, R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: Journal of Glaciology; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/ft/?id=a962a4d6-c269-42af-9604-ddf9c3a2da9d; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=a962a4d6-c269-42af-9604-ddf9c3a2da9d; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=a962a4d6-c269-42af-9604-ddf9c3a2da9d

This paper presents an analysis of the results obtained from a series of measurements on freshwater and saline ice beams under various centrifugal accelerations. The data showed a strong influence of beam size, brine content and centrifugal acceleration on the elastic modulus of ice. The data suggested a transition brine volume at around 10%, which might occur close to the melting point, at which the elastic modulus of ice dropped rapidly due to a possible change of brine pocket structure. Furthermore, for brine volumes less than 10%, there was a negligible increase in the elastic modulus measured under high centrifugal accelerations, but for brine volumes greater than 10% the increase was considerable, approaching that measured with freshwater ice. This may be due to necking of brine drainage channels just above the ice/water interface at high centrifugal acceleration. A model of sea ice was constructed based on existing theories of brine inclusions in sea ice, which satisfactorily predicted the observed trends. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes