Physical Mechanisms of Ice Contact Fracture

摘要

In this paper, we determined the laws governing deformation changes of the fresh-ice structure, which depend on the loading conditions. Visualization of the defect-accumulation scenario was realized for the fracture attained as a result of pressing a plane stamp of a circular cross section into the ice. A set of stamps 1-20 mm in diameter was used. Novel effects were revealed, namely, the columnar mechanism of the ice contact fracture and the appearance of circular opening-mode cracks. The correlation of the scale factor with the size of an ice structural element is established. The fracture toughness, as well as the fracture work and the energy spent to produce a crack, is calculated.