A study of the effect of contact surface geometry and crushing rate on the behavior of the ice

The crushing behavior of ice can be classified into three regimes as ductile, ductile-to-brittle and brittle behavior, and the most significant factor in characterizing between brittle and ductile modes is strain rate. The magnitude of ice load is highly influenced by the ice behavior, but the behavior and resulting ice loads are dependent on the shape of the indenter. The ice behavior transitions in accordance with structural shape were assessed in this study using cylindrical ice specimens crushed against flat and wedge-shaped indenters at three different angles. In addition, the effect of crushing rate is also examined for the different indenter shapes. The indenter shape influenced the failure process of the ice, and this led to changes of the ice behavior as well as the magnitude of ice loads. However, the rate dependent failure regimes, ductile, transition and brittle remained effectively the same.