Strength–temperature equations for first-year ice, second-year ice, and two categories of multi-year ice

• Published in: International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering
• Main Author: Johnston, M. E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers 2021
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17736/ijope.2021.jc801; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=b48dfa8d-6162-44d4-9f51-553b28ee0776; https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=b48dfa8d-6162-44d4-9f51-553b28ee0776

Strength–temperature equations are presented for four categories of sea ice based on the borehole strengths (BHS) measured during 876 tests in 162 boreholes and their corresponding ice temperatures. The strength of every type of sea ice decreases with increasing ice temperature, as expected. The more novel aspect of the data provides equations to capture the strength–temperature relation, in addition to showing the temperature ranges where the strengths of each sea ice category overlap and where they do not. Equations based on ice temperature provide a reasonable prediction of the BHS for the different sea ice categories, but they cannot reproduce the measured strengths exactly. That is because temperature (proposed here as the most important and easily obtained variable) is but one of the factors that influence ice strength. Peer reviewed: Yes NRC publication: Yes