Author(s): Erland M. Schulson; Timothy R. Smith

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Abstract: Experimental results are presented on the brittle compressive failure of fresh-water and salt-water columnar ice at -10C and -40C proportionally loaded biaxially either in two orthogonal directions across the columns (type-A) or across and along the columns (type-B). Under type-A loading the failure stress first rises sharply with increasing confining stress, and then decreases. Correspondingly, both wing cracking and localized fragmentation occur under the lower confinement and the macroscopic failure mode occurs in the plane of loading; under the higher confinement only localized fragmentation is seen and macroscopic failure occurs out of the loading plane. The failure envelope resembles a truncated Coulomb envelope. Under type-B loading the confinement has no effect at all. The effects are explained in terms of two mechanisms, frictional crack sliding and contact tensile fractures.

DOI:

Year: 1992