Author(s): Zdenek P. Bazant; Jang-Jay Kim
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Vertical load capacity of a floating sea ice plate is analyzed by fracture mechanics. The radial bending cracks, which are considered to reach only through a part of the plate thickness and have a variable depth profile, are assumed to follow the Rice-Levy nonlinear softening line spring model. The plate-crack interaction is characterized in terms of the compliance functions for the plate wedge between radial cracks. Numerical calculations show a typical quasi brittle size effect such that the plot of log erN liS. log h (erN = nominal stress at maximum load, h = plate thickness) is a descending curve whose slope is negligible only for h < 0.2 m and then gets graduaJly steeper, asymptotically approaching -1/2. The calculated size effect agrees with the existing test data, and contradicts Sodhi's plasticity solution.
Year: 1998