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16
Annual Report 2016
SAMCoT
Among other activities, WP1 focused on the comparison
of ice strength characteristics during in-situ tests of sea
ice strength. Under the direction of Aleksey Marchen-
ko, full-scale (~1m) in-situ tests on the tensile and
compressive strength of saline and freshwater floating
ice were performed on the land-fast ice in the Van Mijen
Fjord in Spitsbergen and on the drift ice in the North-
West Barents Sea.
The results are directly comparable to previous small-
scale tests, in which the measured tensile strength of
sea ice decreases from 1 MPa to 0.2 MPa, and the mea-
sured compressive strength of sea ice decreases from 4
MPa to 2 MPa as the temperature increases from -30
⁰
C
to -2
⁰
C. In the full-scale tests the loads were applied in
the horizontal direction over the entire ice thickness to
the floating ice samples in their original configuration.
Full-scale tests in compression demonstrated stable
failure of ice beam by central cracking parallel to the
loading direction. When comparing results obtained at
the full-scale compression test with those of small-scale
tests, WP1 researchers discovered that the strength of
ice was approximately 4 times less. Full-scale tests in
tension demonstrated brittle and synchronous failure
of the sample necks. In addition, the values obtained of
the full-scale tensile strength tests were approximately
two times smaller than the tensile strength measured
in small-scale tests. The results of the full-scale tests
are currently being used for the validation of mechanical
models of sea ice describing ice-structure interaction
and loads.
WP1 researchers, including a group of visiting resear-
chers, also performed: small-scale tests with samples
cored from sea ice in the land-fast ice in the Van-Mijen
Fjord (Spitsbergen); 11 tensile and 52 compressive
strength test and measurements of the acoustic
emissions from each meso-scale test performed in the
Van-Mijen Fjord and those performed directly on drift ice
in the Barents Sea (Olga Strait).
N. Marchenko has been searching for an optimal algorithm
to use when scanning ice samples to gain further
knowledge on ice properties. This work started in March
2016 during the Svea expedition with the scanning of ice
samples obtained from mechanical tests. She continued
this line of work during the Lance cruise.
ICE STRENGTH
In-situ meso-scale tests on tensile strength