Using DIC Techniques to Measure Ice Road Deflections under Moving Loads

摘要

Ice roads in Northern Canada provide vital access for the transportation of supplies to remote communities and mining operations which are otherwise inaccessible by road. When vehicles drive across an ice road, waves in the ice are created which reach a maximum at the critical speed of the ice. The transportation efficiency is limited by the critical speed of the ice, therefore it is important to accurately determine critical speed without causing failure of the ice. To analyze the effect of varying truck speeds on ice deflection, a field study was conducted near Yellowknife, Canada. The majority of field tests use survey tools or instrumentation to measure the deflection which are effective however, they are also expensive and subject to operational difficulty in the cold environment. In this study, digital image correlation (DIC) techniques were used to capture and measure ice deflection due to a moving truck. The deflection results of the DIC method and the traditional survey method are compared for the moving load test. The greater number of DIC measurement points installed along the ice allowed for a wide area to be covered at one time, compared to the traditional survey methods. In addition, the cameras used for DIC did not experience the same disruptive operational errors as the survey total stations due to the cold temperatures. Overall, it is shown that this methodology is effective, reliable, and cost efficient in capturing ice road deflection.