Arctic Engineering Module 3b

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This is Jon Zufelt welcoming you to Module #3B Physical and Mechanical Properties of Ice. This presentation
will provide information on the properties of water, river ice, lake ice, and sea ice. The reading assignment for this
module is in the Course Texts, EM 1110-2-1612 Ice Engineering Manual Chapter 2 and River and Lake Ice
Engineering Chapter 2.

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Arctic Engineering Module 3b

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In ice engineering, ice is almost always in contact with liquid water, whether it is the ice in a jam on a river or the
bottom of the growing ice sheet on a lake. To understand ice, we should look at water a bit, also. Water molecules
are composed of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. The structure of the water molecule arises from the
covalent bond or sharing of an electron between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. A covalent bond is one of the
strongest molecular bonds there is and gives rise to some of waters unique properties. The hydrogen atoms
attach to the oxygen atom at a 105-degree angle between them which gives rise to an electrical polarity, the
oxygen side of the molecule has a negative charge while the hydrogen side has a positive charge.

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The electrical polarity of the water molecules gives rise to hydrogen bonding in which the positive hydrogen sides
are attracted to the negative oxygen sides of neighboring molecules. Water and ice have this hydrogen bonded
structure where each oxygen atom is associated with two hydrogen atoms but with the restriction that only one
hydrogen atom can be located between any pair of oxygen atoms. The slide shows this arrangement of covalent
(strong) bonds and hydrogen (weaker) bonds.

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The effect of the hydrogen bonds results in some interesting and important properties for water. It has a high heat
capacity or the ability to absorb a large amount of heat with little increase in temperature. This is why dry air (like
in a desert) heats up and cools down much more rapidly than humid air. Water also has a high latent heat of
fusion or the amount of heat that must be lost before change of liquid to solid state occurs. Think of how
dangerous it would be to be out on the lake ice skating on a sunny day if the latent heat of fusion was the same
as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of water one degree (80:1 ratio). Water also has a very
high latent heat of vaporization which acts to keep the water in our lakes instead of the atmosphere. Finally, water
has a very high surface tension, important in droplet formation, crystal formation, and capillary wave formation.

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The specific heat is a measure of the quantity of heat that must be added to a unit mass of substance to raise its
temperature one unit degree under constant pressure. Water has a high specific heat meaning that a relatively
large amount of heat must be added or extracted to change the temperature. The specific heat of water is a
function of temperature and is given in the following empirical equations for SI and English units.

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The density of water is temperature dependent and even though the changes in density over the range of water
temperatures normally encountered in nature are small, the effects are very important. Unlike most substances,
the density of water increases with decreasing temperature only to about 4 C. Further decrease in temperature
actually results in a decrease in density as the hydrogen-bonded molecules begin to align into a regular crystalline
pattern. Upon freezing, the crystalline structure takes up much more room and the density decreases significantly.

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This slide gives the empirical formula for the density of water as a function of temperature at standard
atmospheric pressure. The maximum density of freshwater (at 4 C or 39.2 F), is 1000 kg/cubic meter or 62.4
lbs/cubic foot.

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In the summer, natural water bodies will have warmer and lighter water at the surface with cooler denser water at
the bottom. As the surface water in the lake cools and becomes more dense, it will sink to the bottom. As the
water continues to cool, the entire lake reaches a uniform temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. The surface will
continue to cool but the water will remain at the surface since it is now less dense. Ice eventually forms at the
surface. The denser water at the bottom forms a thermal reserve for the lake which is insulated from further heat
loss by the ice sheet and snow on the lake surface. Windy conditions prior to freeze-up will result in significant
mixing of the water, thereby reducing the water temperature near the bottom and the potential thermal reserve.

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As water freezes, the molecules arrange themselves in a more open, more regular, hexagonal crystalline
structure. The oxygen atoms occupy the points of the hexagonal lattice in which each oxygen atom is
tetrahedrally coordinated with four other oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms are concentrated in planes, called
basal planes which are situated perpendicular to the hexagonal axis or c-axis. In the figure on the right, the view
is along the c-axis and looking down through the hexagonal basal planes.

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The density of freshwater ice at 0 degrees Celsius is 916.8 kg/cubic meter or 57.2 lbs/cubic foot. Like most solids,
ice contracts with decreasing temperature, thereby increasing the density. Its density is most affected by
impurities such as air bubbles (which can reduce the density) or pockets of liquid water (which can increase the
density). For most ice engineering applications in the temperature ranges expected, a value of 915-917 kg/ cubic
meter or 57.1-57.2 lb/cubic foot is a good value for freshwater ice density.

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Thermal conductivity is the measure of the ability of ice to transmit heat under a unit temperature gradient. The
values of thermal conductivity for freshwater ice are given here in the slide for both SI and English units. Ice is
less of a heat conductor than copper or aluminum (which have thermal conductivities of 388 and 209
Watts/meter-degree C) but a greater heat conductor than wood or concrete. Impurities, unfrozen water, and air
bubbles can affect the thermal conductivity. The latent heat of freezing, or that amount of heat that must be lost
for water to change into ice, is much higher than the specific heat of ice, which is the amount of heat which much
be lost to drop the temperature of ice by one degree Celsius. The specific heat of ice is roughly half of the specific
heat of liquid water.

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Mechanical properties of ice are important parameters that determine the forces that ice may exert on structures
or the way that ice deforms under loading conditions. Depending on the crystalline structure of ice, its behavior
can range from brittle to ductile, also being influenced by the loading rate, temperature, testing technique, and
testing conditions. Detailed explanations of ice properties can be found in Chapter 2 of River and Lake Ice
Engineering our course text.

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Strength is mechanical property of ice that comes to mind in engineering terms since it determines the ice forces
acting on a structure or the load bearing capacity of an ice sheet. Strength tests are relatively easy to perform and
as such, ice strength has been extensively tested. Strength is defined as the maximum stress that a specimen
can support. Failure is described as brittle when the specimen ruptures or breaks with an instantaneous drop in
stress and ductile if the strain continues to increase with no further increase in stress. Strength values must be
fully qualified in their description since they depend on temperature, ice type (crystal structure), grain size, air
bubble content, loading rate, orientation, end conditions, and specimen size.

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Compressive or crushing strength is the maximum load that can be supported due to loads perpendicular to the c-
axis. These type of loadings usually occur normal to the floe thickness, such as a floe being pushed against a
vertical wall or crushing against a bridge pier. The main factors affecting crushing strength are the crystal size,
rate of loading, and ice temperature. For snow or frazil ice and columnar ice at a temperature of -10 C, the
average crushing strength ranges between 8 to 10 Mega Pascals or 1.1 to 1.5 thousand psi. The formula given
here for crushing strength is from experiments by Michel and includes the variables of temperature and crystal
size.

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Tensile strength is much harder to measure due to the difficulty of attaching the specimen to the loading device.
As such, only limited test data exists on tensile strength. In the brittle failure region, strength appears to be mainly
a function of grain size with very little influence of temperature. There seems to be no impact of strain rate on the
results. For snow ice (small grains) at 7 C, values of 1.8 to 2.2 Mega Pascals have been measured. Larger
columnar-grained ice showed strengths of 1 to 1.2 Mega Pascals. There is not much call for values of tensile
strength, mainly in ice breaker performance and forces on inclined structures.

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Shear strength implies a lateral movement within the material or forces that cause breakage along a plane. Since
the different testing methods approach shear in various ways (torsion, direct shear, and punch tests) values can
vary widely. Russian literature gives shear strength ranges of 0.2 to 4 Mega Pascals depending on temperature,
ice type, specimen size, and loading rate.

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Flexural strength has been investigated both in the laboratory and in the field and applies to performance of ice
breakers, ice forces on inclined structures, rubble mound and ridge building, and determining safe bearing
capacities on ice sheets. The flexural strength is the maximum vertical load that can be supported by an ice sheet
at its edge. The results of many tests show that the strength reported depends on the size of the test specimen,
the type of test performed, crystal size, and whether the top or bottom of the ice sheet is put into tension. Values
for competent freshwater columnar ice ranges from 0.5 Mega Pascals for large cantilever beam specimens to 1.2
Mega Pascals for small specimens in simple beam tests.

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Breakthrough loads are discussed later in the course but for short-term duration loads, the allowable load P that a
floating ice sheet can withstand is proportional to the square of the ice thickness. This slide presents the formula
representing this relation. The value of A depends on the system of units used.

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The Elastic Modulus or E represents the relationship between stress and strain. It depends on the ice
temperature, ice crystal structure, and the rate of stress application. Creep, or stress deformation, can occur at
high stress levels and can cause the strain to vary during a test. As a result, the values of Elastic Modulus can
vary widely. For natural freshwater ice, values have been measured between 0.4 and 9.8 GigaPascals (55 to
1350 thousand psi). For large laboratory tanks of freshwater ice, values have been measured of 4.3 to 8.3
GigaPascals (600 to 1150 thousand psi).

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The characteristic length, L sub-c, of a floating ice sheet is a measure of the zone of deformation when the sheet
is subjected to a vertical load. It is also a measure of the initial size of ice floes upon breakup of a cover. Field
measurements have shown that the characteristic length of competent freshwater ice is 15 to 20 times the
thickness. The formula for characteristic length is given in this slide.

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Two techniques can be used in the field to measure elastic modulus and flexural strength with minimal equipment.
The cantilever beam test is shown on this slide. A beam is cut in the ice sheet with a length L that is about 5 to 8
times the sheet thickness, h. The width should be about 2 ice thicknesses. The load P is applied to the tip of the
beam and the deflection delta is measured. The failure load P prime is used to determine the flexural strength.
Formulas are provided in the slide. The saw cuts at the root of the beam (inside corners) should be rounded to
avoid local stress concentrations that may cause early beam failure.

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In the simple beam test, a beam of length L and width B is cut from the ice sheet and placed on two supports. It is
loaded at its center with the load P and the deflection delta is measured. Formulas are provided in the slide. For
both the cantilever and simple beam test, the top or the bottom of the ice specimen can be put into tension.

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The properties of sea ice differ from those of freshwater ice mainly due to the presence of brine and air pockets
within the ice structure. As sea ice freezes, the impurities are rejected to the crystal boundaries, resulting in brine
pockets where the salt concentration is high enough to prevent further freezing. The volume of the brine in parts
per thousand is given here as a function of salinity and temperature.

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The volume of the air voids in the ice structure can be found after measuring the bulk density, of the ice
containing salt and air. This relation also depends on the salinity and two functions of temperature.

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The two functions of temperature are provided here in graphical form and are derived from a phase equilibrium
table developed by Cox and Weeks. The total porosity in the ice sub-t, and the brine volume fraction of the
porosity, sub-b are used to calculate values of compressive and flexural strength of sea ice.

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Timco and Frederking analyzed over 400 samples to come up with the relations for compressive strength
presented here as a function of the total porosity (in parts per thousand) and strain rate. The range of applicable
strain rates for these equations is 10 to the -7th to 10 to the -4th per second. Relations are given for horizontally
loaded columnar sea ice, vertically loaded columnar sea ice, and granular sea ice.

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Timco and OBrien analyzed over 900 flexural strength measurements to come up with this relation for flexural
strength of sea ice which is only a function of the brine volume fraction. If the brine volume is set to zero, the
equation results in a flexural strength of 1.76 Mega Pascals, which agrees very well with the average value of
1.73 Mega Pascals for freshwater ice.

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