Cold Regions Science and Technology, 17 ( 1990 ) 227-240
Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., Amsterdam -- Printed in The Netherlands
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF SEA ICE SHEETS
G.W. Timco and R.M.W. Frederking
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont. K 1A OR6 (Canada)
(Received April 12, 1989; revised and accepted July 5, 1989)
ABSTRACT
A model has been developed for predicting the
large-scale compressive strength of sea ice sheets. The
only inputs which are required to calculate the
strength are the air temperature, the ice thickness and
the strain rate. The model makes use of the results of
283 small-scale strength tests and the relationships
between the intrinsic and extrinsic properties of the
ice sheet. A comparison of the results of the model to
large-scale measured compressive strengths shows
excellent agreement. A parametric variation is per-
formed on all of the factors affecting the compressive
strength. In addition, using available meteorological
information for the Arctic, the compressive strength
of a typical sea ice sheet is predicted throughout a
winter's season.
INTRODUCTION
Ice load is usually the predominant design crite-
rion for offshore structures used in cold regions.
Therefore, it is important to be able to predict ac-
curately the ice load in order to have safe and effi-
cient designs. During an ice loading event, the
strength of the ice sheet plays a key role in deter-
mining the ultimate load on the structure. The ice
sheet may fail by crushing, bending, shearing or
some combination of these failure modes. When the
ice sheet fails by a crushing process, the ice load is
assumed to be related to the uni-axial compressive
strength of the ice sheet. To aid design engineers it
would be desirable to be able to predict the in-plane,
uni-axial compressive strength of ice sheets for var-
ious circumstances.
227
Many investigators (Wang, 1979; Frederking and
Timco, 1980, 1983, 1984; Sinha, 1981, 1983a,
1983b, 1984; Timco and Frederking, 1983a, 1984,
1986; Urabe and Inoue, 1986) have measured the
compressive strength of small samples of sea ice. It
has been found that a number of factors influence
the measured strength value. These factors can
either be intrinsic (temperature, salinity, density,
ice type, crystal size and orientation) or test condi-
tion (rate of loading, confinement conditions, load-
ing direction, sample size, stiffness of the test ma-
chine and sample preparation techniques). For a
material scientist, all of these factors have to be in-
cluded in order to characterize fully the strength of
the ice. In most instances, a detailed knowledge of
these parameters is not known and defining a com-
pressive strength may appear to be a formidable (or
impossible) task.
Exxon (Chen and Lee, 1986; Lee et al., 1986; Pet-
rie and Poplin, 1986; Wang and Poplin, 1986) has
reported on two multi-million dollar test programs
in which the compressive strength of very large
beams of sea ice (on the order of 6 × 3 × 1.5 m thick)
were measured. In the same test program, the
strength of a number of smaller test specimens of
sea ice were also measured. The test condition for
each of the smaller specimens was set to be the same
as if it was in-situ; i.e. at the same temperature and
salinity that it would be in the ice sheet. The strength
of a large beam was compared to the average of a
number of smaller (laboratory size) specimens
which represented the appropriate profile in the ice
sheet. Exxon found that for ice from the same site
and at the same environmental conditions, there was
no difference in the strength of the ice. Thus, in
compression, there does not appear to be a "size ef-
228
o c = o c (Si,Ti,O,i)
Vr = t o t a l p o r o s i t y = vT(Si,T i,p)
.', O c =O C (PT, (~)
S i = ice salinity = Si(hi)
T i = ice t e m p e r a t u r e
P = bulk density --- c o n s t a n t
.', oc =Oc (hi,Ta,(P),~)
1
Oc(iCe sheet) = -~- Y O c ( l a y e r n)
[ REQUIRED INPUTS = T a , h i ]
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration showing the model for the sea ice sheet and the process for the development of the model.
fect" in ice. Equivalent full-thickness strengths of
ice sheets can be directly inferred from small-scale
laboratory tests. This suggests that it should be pos-
sible to develop a model which is based on numer-
ous small-scale tests and which will give good rep-
resentative large-scale strengths for sea ice sheets.
Such a model is developed in this paper.
A MODEL FOR THE COMPRESSIVE
STRENGTH
The model for predicting the compressive strength
of sea ice sheets is based on two assumptions. Firstly,
there is no size-effect in compression for sea ice; and
secondly, the strength of the ice can be related to the
environmental conditions of the ice. These assump-
tions appear to be reasonable for sea ice.
The first step in developing this procedure was to
compile the existing data on small-scale strength
tests. These were then analyzed and formulated to
give the uni-axial compressive strength of first-year
sea ice in terms of the strain rate, and the intrinsic
parameters of ice salinity, ice temperature, and ice
TIMCO AND FREDERKING
Ta = Air Temperature
S u r f a c e Temperature
~~SE =
~TS
A ICE
Tt.Si,P ~vT(layer 1)
T2.Si,P ~vT(layer 2)
= Ti(Ts,Te )
= Ti(Ta)
through hi Tn.Si,P ~ VT(layer n)
winter m o n t h s
T9,Si,p ~ Vr(layer 9)
J
~T B = Bottom Temperature
density (or total ice porosity ) for different ice-grain
types and loading directions.
Having established the small-scale behaviour of
the ice in terms of the ice test conditions, it is nec-
essary to re-formulate these ice test conditions in
terms of extrinsic parameters appropriate for the
whole ice sheet. For this, the salinity of the ice was
directly related to the thickness of the ice sheet, and
the local ice temperature was related to the ambient
air temperature. Since the temperature and hence
the porosity of the ice sheet can vary significantly
with depth, the ice sheet was separated into a num-
ber of individual layers. The porosity for each layer
was calculated based on the local temperature, sal-
inity and density. Then, using the defining equa-
tions from the small-scale tests, the ice strength was
determined for each layer. The average of these cal-
culated compressive strengths was used to give the
large-scale compressive strength for the full ice sheet.
A schematic illustrating the procedure is shown in
Fig. 1. With this approach it is possible to define
equations which give the compressive strength of a
sea ice sheet with the air temperature and ice thick-
ness as the only two environmental parameters nec-
essary to define the strength.
COMPRESSIVESTRENGTHOF SEAICESHEETS 229

There are two things which should be noted about
the present work. First, it is important to realize that
this model calculates the strength of the ice sheet, a
material property. This calculated strength value
does not necessarily imply that this stress level will
be exerted on an offshore structure subjected to a
moving ice sheet. Other factors come into play in
its application to the ice force problem. Second, the
present model gives a strength value which is ap-
propriate for the full ice sheet. This is the first time
that this has been done. The work, however, builds
on earlier work into the small-scale compressive
strength of sea ice through compilations by Weeks
and Ackley (1982), Mellor (1983), Sanderson
(1984), T i m c o and Frederking (1986), and the in-
sightful information on the profile properties of sea
ice sheets by Cox and Weeks ( 1988 ).
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH EQUATIONS m reported in terms of a nominal loading rate on the
INTRINSIC PARAMETERS
In all of the investigations on the compressive
strength of sea ice, the results have been related to
one or more of the intrinsic parameters of the ice:
salinity, ice temperature, brine volume, ice poros-
ity, etc. This is usually done for a particular ice type
(granular or columnar) and loading direction. In
order to combine all o f the available test results, it
is necessary to gather all the information from each
test series and present the results in a coherent fash-
ion. This is done in this section.
Because o f the complexity of sea ice behaviour,
this task is not easy. In m a n y cases (especially the
early investigations) all of the necessary informa-
tion was not measured. In the following, these as-
sumptions have been made:
( 1 ) The results have been selected for two pri-
mary structural types of ice: (a) horizontally iso-
tropic columnar-grained ice with a random c-axis
orientation in the plane of the ice cover (also termed
transversely isotropic); and (b) granular ice with
equi-axed grains with random c-axis orientation
(isotropic).
(2) The reported compressive-strength values are
assumed to be correct. No account is taken to elim-
inate inaccuracies due to the machine stiffness, in-
adequate sample preparation, etc. This assumption
is necessary since details regarding test procedures
are often not included in the reports of compressive
strength tests. Thus, the tests are considered to be
sample.
( 3 ) Although due consideration is given to the ice
type, no consideration is given to the grain size. This
simplification is necessary since the required infor-
mation is not usually available for each test series.
However, the grain size variations are not great.
(4) The results reported represent only the case
of uni-axial loading conditions. Multi-axial loading
and confinement are not considered.
A compilation of 283 compressive-strength test
results on first-year sea ice are presented in Tables
1, 2 and 3. The test information includes the tem-
perature, ice salinity, bulk ice density, grain struc-

TABLE 1

Columnar ice horizontal loading

Temperature Ice Bulk Number Results Investigators Strength (V~r)°5 Graph

(°C) salinity density of tests number symbol
(ppt) (Mgm -3 ) (MPa)

-26 3-5 (0.90) 7 a=3.9 at b=0.074 Frederking and Timco, 1980 6.9 0.17 A
-10 6-9 0.91 30 0-=4.5(b) °-2a Sinha, 1983a 4.5 0.24 B
- 11 4-5 0.90 10 0-=5.2(0-) 0.36 Frederking and Timco, 1983 5.2 0.22 C
-11 3.2-4.5 (0.88) 18 0-=4.1 (0-)0.20 FrederkingandTimco, 1984 4.1 0.26 D
-10 4-7 0.91 10 0-=4.6(0-) 0.29 Sinha, 1984 4.6 0.21 E
- 12 I-2.1 0.85 21 0-= 1.8 at 0-=0.3 Urabe and Inoue, 1986 2.35 0.29 F
- 12 0.8-2.2 0.85 7 0-=2.7 at 0-=0.089 Timcoand Frederking, 1986 4.6 0.29 G
-4 1.1-2.3 0.85 5 tr= 1.6 at 6=0.046 Timcoand Frederking, 1986 3.2 0.31 H
-2 1.2-2.7 0.78 14 0-= 1.9(0-)°.2-" Timco and Frederking, 1986 1.9 0.44 I
230 TIMCOAND FREDERKING

TABLE 2

Columnar ice vertical loading

Temperature Ice Bulk Number Results Investigators Strength (U~r)°5 Graph

(°C) salinity density of tests number symbol
(ppt) (Mg m -3) (MPa)

-26 3-5 (0.90) 16 a = 13 at #=0.27 Frederking and Timco, 1980 17.3 0.17 J
-10 6-9 0.91 21 a=6.3 at #=0.06 Sinha, 1983a 11.7 0.24 K
- 10 3-4.5 0.90 20 0-=24.9(#) T M Sinha, 1983b 25 0.21 L
- I 1 3.2-4.5 (0.88) 13 a = 13.9(#) 0.22 FrederkingandTimco, 1984 14 0.26 M
-12 1.1-2.0 0.85 5 a=9.7 at #=0.131 Timco and Frederking, 1986 15.2 0.29 N
-4 1.1-2.3 0.85 7 a=6.1 at #=0.11 Timco and Frederking, 1986 9.9 0.31 O
-2 1.4-2.0 0.85 6 a=4.3 at #=0.16 Timco and Frederking, 1986 6.4 0.35 P

TABLE 3

Granular ice

Temperature Ice Bulk Number Results Investigators Strength (v%)°5 Graph

(°C) salinity density of tests number symbol
(ppt) (Mgm -3) (MPa)

-11 4-5 0.90 17 0"= 5.8 ( # ) 0A6 FrederkingandTimco, 1983 5.8 0.22 Q
- 10 4-8 0.90 7 a=6.7(#) °'3° Sinha, 1984 6.7 0.24 R
- 11 3.2-4.5 (0.88) 8 a=5.8(#) °'13 FrederkingandTimco, 1984 5.8 0.26 S
-13 3.7-4.7 (0.88) 17 a=5.8(#) °'22 Timco and Frederking, 1984 5.8 0.25 T
- 10 4-7 0.905 7 a=7.0(#) °'3° Sinha, 1986 7.0 0.23 U
-10 4-7 0.905 4 a=5.1(#) °'26 Sinha, 1986 5.1 0.23 V
- 18 4-7 0.905 4 a=6.8(#) °'19 Sinha, 1986 6.8 0.20 W
- 10 2 0.75 6 a = 1.2 at 6=0.3 Urabe and Inoue, 1986 1.6 0.44 X
- 12 2.1 0.896 3 a=3.7 at #=0.089 Timco and Frederking, 6.3 0.19 Y
unpublished

ture, l o a d i n g d i r e c t i o n , n u m b e r o f tests, test results where a is the m e a s u r e d c o m p r e s s i v e strength, &a is

a n d the investigators. N o t e t h a t the results o f the
strength tests on sea ice are f r e q u e n t l y p r e s e n t e d in
terms o f either a test variable, the average stress rate
(&) or strain rate (~); o r a m a t e r i a l v a r i a b l e , the
b r i n e v o l u m e ( o r with the a i r c o n t e n t , the total po-
r o s i t y ) o f the ice.
It is a s s u m e d that the c o m p r e s s i v e strength is re-
lated only to the l o a d i n g rate a n d the total p o r o s i t y
o f the ice. An a p p r o a c h for d e v e l o p i n g this relation,
in which the test results are n o r m a l i z e d with respect
to the average stress rate has been o u t l i n e d by T i m c o
and Frederking (1986). This produces a "strength
n u m b e r " which is i n d e p e n d e n t o f l o a d i n g rate. T h e
strength n u m b e r ( a , ) is d e f i n e d as:
,~,, = o-(a~.Ja~) '~ ( 1)
the c o r r e s p o n d i n g average stress rate, ba.r is a ref-
e r e n c e - a v e r a g e stress rate, a n d b is s o m e e x p o n e n t .
Based on average m e a s u r e d v a l u e s r e p o r t e d in Ta-
bles I, 2 a n d 3, a v a l u e o f b = 0 . 2 2 was chosen. As a
reference stress rate &a,r = 1 M P a s - ' was c h o s e n for
s i m p l i c i t y in c o m p a r i s o n . U s i n g this a p p r o a c h , the
effects o f l o a d i n g rate are largely e l i m i n a t e d .
T h i s allows an e v a l u a t i o n o f the strength tests
solely in t e r m s o f the total p o r o s i t y o f the ice. T h i s
is necessary since sea ice consists o f a c o m p l e x mix-
t u r e o f ice, air, salts a n d l i q u i d brine. T h e r e l a t i v e
a m o u n t o f each o f these c o n s t i t u e n t s is d e t e r m i n e d
by the ice t e m p e r a t u r e , s a l i n i t y a n d d e n s i t y in ac-
c o r d a n c e to the p h a s e d i a g r a m s o f the v a r i o u s salts
in the ice (see e.g. W e e k s a n d Ackley, 1982). W i t h
changes in t e m p e r a t u r e , the size o f the l i q u i d inclu-
C O M P R E S S I V E S T R E N G T H O F SEA ICE S H E E T S 231

12
sions within the ice changes. This affects directly the
strength of the ice.

••yW
~ 10
g. N = 10.8 - 20.3 (V'T)0"5
Figures 2 - 4 show the strength n u m b e r (an) ver-
sus the square root of the total porosity fraction ~.
ul 8

(v~-) °'5 for tests on columnar sea ice (horizontal II1

loading, see Fig. 2; and vertical loading, see Fig. 3) ~ 6
"l"
p-
and on granular (frazil) ice (Fig. 4). In all three
figures, there appears to be a good correlation for w
all the test data with an apparent linear dependence
between an and (g~)o.5. A linear regression of the
I I I I
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
[TOTAL POROSITY FRACTION] 0"5

10 Fig. 4. Relationship between the strength number and the to-

tal porosity for compressive strength tests on granular ice (see
Table 3 for an explanation of the symbols).
8
o..
data, with weighting according to the number of data
~6
cfl points from each test series yields:
z
"1" ~ B ( an = 8 . 2 - 15.8 (~-) °'5 (2)
z for horizontally-loaded columnar ice, and:
"/N = 8.2 - 15.8 (V'T)05 F H ~
a, = 34.1 - 76.6 (uq-) °s (3)
for vertically-loaded columnar ice, and:
I I I I
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 an = 1 0 . 8 - 20.3 (V~r)°5 (4)
[TOTAL POROSITY FRACTION] 0.5
for granular ice. Note that these equations apply to
Fig. 2. Relationship between the strength number and the to- first-year sea ice for which 0.1 < (~q-)°5<0.45.
tal porosity for compressive strength tests on horizontally- They should not be applied to second-year or multi-
loaded columnar-grained ice (see Table 1 for an explanation
of the symbols). year ice. By re-introducing Eq. 1 it is possible to put
each of these equations in terms of the total poros-
40
ity UT (where V-r= 1000 U-'r) and the average stress-
loading rate.
1 - 76.6 (VT) 05
o- 30 Since compressive strength tests are more often
discussed in terms of strain rate rather than stress
rate, it is more convenient to express these equa-
~ 20 tions in terms of this parameter. A typical ratio of
..r
M
N the loading stress rate to strain rate is of the order
O o f 10 3 MPa for sea ice (Timco and Frederking,
1986). Thus, the equations for the compressive
strength for sea ice in terms of its intrinsic parame-
0 I I I ters are:
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
[TOTAL POROSITY FRACTION] 0.5 ac = 37(~)°22[ 1 - (ua-/270) °'5 ] (5)
Fig. 3. Relationship between the strength number and the to-
for horizontally-loaded columnar ice:
tal porosity for compressive strength tests on vertically-loaded
columnar-grained ice (see Table 2 for an explanation of the ac = 160(~)°22[ 1 - (VT/200) °'5 ] (6)
symbols ).
232
for vertically-loaded columnar ice, and:
ac =49(~)°22[ 1 - ( / - ' T / 2 8 0 ) °'5 ] (7)
for granular ice, where Vv is in parts per thousand
(ppt). The strain rate range for these equations is
from 10 -7 s -~ to 10 -4 s -~. Above this strain rate,
premature (brittle) failure of the ice can occur in
some, but not all instances. In this paper the strain
rate range will be extended to 10 -3 s -t, keeping in
mind that the ice may fail at lower stresses than that
predicted for this higher strain-rate range. Equa-
tions 5-7 relate the uni-axial compressive strength
of sea ice explicitly to grain type, loading direction,
loading strain rate and total porosity, and implicitly
to ice salinity, temperature and density.
UNI-AXlAL COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH --
EXTRINSIC PARAMETERS
In this section the equations for the compressive
strength will be reformatted and expressed in terms
of the extrinsic parameters of ice thickness and air
temperature. For this, the total porosity VT of the
ice is expressed as:
V-r = vb + va (8)
where vu is the relative brine volume and G is the
relative air volume.
Cox and Weeks (1982) have shown that the rel-
ative brine volume vb can be expressed in terms of
the bulk ice density (p), the ice salinity (Si) and the
ice temperature ( T~) by:
vb =pSi/Ft( Ti) (9)
whereS~ is in ppt, T~ is in °C, pis in Mg m -3 and:
F,( T~) = - 4 . 7 3 2 - 22.45 T~- 0.6397T~
-0.01074T 3
for - 2 > T~ > - 22.9; and
F, (T,) = 9899 + 1309 T, + 55.27 T~
+0.716T 3
for - 2 2 . 9 > T~ > - 3 0 (10)
The relative air volume va can be expressed in terms
of the pure ice density (p~), the bulk ice density (p),
the salinity (S,) and ice temperature (Ti) as:
Va=I-[p/p~(T~)]+[pSiF2(T,)/F,(T~)] (11)
TIMCO AND FREDERKING
where:
F2(T~) =8.903 X 10 - 2 - 1.763 x 1 0 - 2 T i - 5.33
X 10-4T~--8.801X 10-6Ti3
for - - 2 > Ti > - 2 2 . 9 ; and
F2(T~) = 8.547+ 1.089T~+4.518X 10-2T~
+5.819X 10-4T 3
for - 2 2 . 9 > T~> - 3 0
(12)
and, the pure ice density pi is given as:
p~(T~) = 0 . 9 1 7 - 1.403 X 10-4T~ (13)
where Ti is in °C andpi is in Mg m -3. Thus the total
porosity is:
VT=I-[p/p~(T~)]+[pS,/Ft(T~ ] [ I + F 2 ( T ~ ) ]
(14)
In this equation, the total porosity is expressed in
terms of bulk ice density, salinity and temperature.
Each of these will be treated in turn.
Bulk ice density
Little information is available on the seasonal
variation of the bulk ice density in many areas of
the Arctic. A number of the measured density val-
ues for sea ice are listed in Table 4. Examining the
data initially suggests that there is considerable
scatter in the measured value. However, if the data
are plotted in terms of the place and the time of year
it was measured, a trend emerges (see Fig. 5). It
appears that the bulk ice density of polar sea ice is
relatively constant throughout the autumn and win-
ter months. The measured values for this time pe-
riod show good consistency. Measured densities for
ice from the Beaufort Sea area are 0.905, 0.91,0.91
(October), 0.904, 0.90 (January) and 0.91 (April)
with an average value of 0.907 Mg m -3. In the spring
during the melt season, however, the density of the
ice decreases. Depending upon the location, there
can be considerable differences in the density of the
ice in the spring. From the table, a density of 0.90
Mg m -3 was measured in June at Mould Bay in the
Arctic Islands, whereas a density of 0.85 Mg m -3
was measured in May in Labrador. The data by
Weeks and Lee (1958)and Timco and Frederking
(1986) illustrates the general trend of decreasing
density during the spring season. Note that these
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF SEA ICE SHEETS 233

TABLE 4

Measured density values for sea ice

Month Place Density value Investigators Graph

Mg m -3 symbol

Polar locations
May Barrow, Alaska 0.94 Langleben and Pounder, 1962 1
Apr/May EllefRingnesis Island 0.91 Langleben and Pounder, 1962 2
May Pond Inlet 0.907 Kohnen, 1972 3
Apr Mould Bay 0.91 Sinha, 1983a 4
June Mould Bay 0.90 Sinha, 1983b 5
Jan Beaufort Sea 0.90 Frederking and Timco, 1983 6
Jan Beaufort Sea 0.904 Timco and Frederking, 1983b 7
Oct Mould Bay 0.91 Sinha, 1984 8
Oct Mould Bay 0.905 Sinha, 1986 9

Temperate locations (Labrador)

Feb Hopedale 0.916 Weeks and Lee, 1958 *
Mar Hopedale 0.894 Weeks and Lee, 1958 *
Apr Hopedale 0.874 Weeks and Lee, 1958 *
Apr/May Hopedale 0.892 Weeks and Lee, 1958 *
May Labrador 0.847 Timco and Frederking, 1986 *
May Labrador 0.829 Timco and Frederking, 1986 *

1.00
lee salinity

? 0.95 In collating i n f o r m a t i o n on sea ice from a wide

E, n u m b e r o f sources, Cox and Weeks ( 1 9 7 4 ) f o u n d
@ 4 2 3 5 that the average salinity o f an ice sheet can be re-
>. 0 . 9 0

¢n lated to the thickness o f the ice (h~). Figure 6 shows

0 0.85
# POLAR REGIONS
TEMPERATE REGIONS
0.80 I I I I I I
S O N D J F
MONTH
Fig. 5. Variation of the measured bulk density of sea ice mea-
sured at different times of the year and different locations
(see Table 4 for an explanation of the symbols).
data sets represent the density variation in Labra-
dor, which must be considered a more temperate
climate than the higher polar regions.
In using the present model to predict the c o m -
pressive strength o f a sea ice sheet, an average den-
sity o f 0.907 Mg m -3 will be used for the a u t u m n
and winter months. During the spring melt season,
the bulk density can vary d e p e n d i n g upon the loca-
tion, and care must be taken to ensure that the cor-
rect bulk density is used.
a plot o f the average ice salinity versus ice thickness
~e
~r for a large n u m b e r o f m e a s u r e m e n t s on sea ice sam-
pled during the growth season. The graph gives the
I I I I
original data o f Cox and Weeks along with some
M A M J J
m o r e recent data from Frederking and T i m c o
( 1 9 8 0 ) , Sinha and N a k a w o ( 1981 ) and Frederking
( u n p u b l i s h e d ) . The data were collected from cores
f r o m all parts o f the Arctic including the Beaufort
Sea, Bering Sea, Labrador, Eclipse Sound and
Strathcona Sound. F r o m Fig. 6 it appears that a rea-
sonable representation o f the ice salinity for a given
ice thickness hi can be expressed as:
S i = 1 3 . 4 - 17.4 hi
for hi_< 0.34 m; and
S i = 8 . 0 - 1.62 h i
for h~>0.34 m (15)
or, more generally as S~ = F3 (hi). This approach im-
plies that there is no salinity variation with depth
234 TIMCO AND FREDERKING

20
, O Cox and Weeks (1974)
[] Frederking and Timco (1980)
15
o • Frederking (unpublished)
vo.
>- :~ , O Sinha and Nakawo (1981)
i--
zI 10 ~ Si=13.4 - 17.4h i
_.1 (' []
00
uJ ~ ~ : ~ ' _ ~ S =8.0 - 1.62h i
_o 5

0 q~',~C~,~ k-~2,,,
I I I I
0 1 2 3 4 5
ICE THICKNESS (m)
Fig. 6. Variation of the ice salinity with ice thickness for sea ice.

through the ice sheet, a reasonable first approxi-
mation for sea ice. A modification to this approach
would be to use a C-shaped salinity profile (see
Weeks and Ackley, 1982; Cox and Weeks, 1988)
with the shape of the C-profile a function of the ice
thickness. Although the use of this type of salinity
profile is possible, it involves further assumptions
and complicates the equations while adding rela-
tively little to the accuracy of the results. Thus, the
salinity of the ice will be assumed to be independent
of depth in the ice sheet. By using Eq. 15 to relate
the average salinity to the ice sheet thickness, Eq. 8
now becomes a function of bulk ice density, ice sheet
thickness and ice temperature.
Ice temperature
At this stage it becomes necessary to express the
ice temperature (T~) in terms of a more easily
measurable quantity, the air temperature ( T a). This
is not straightforward for several reasons. First, there
is a temperature gradient through the ice sheet. The
bottom of the ice is at a temperature of about - 2 ° C
air temperature. This is a result of the thermal influ-
ence of the snow cover on the ice and a thin bound-
ary layer of air above the surface of the snow. Snow
acts as a thermal insulation that attenuates the ef-
fect of the air temperature on the upper surface
temperature. Moreover, temperature changes in the
air are not immediately followed by changes in the
ice temperature; a phase lag exists. For the purpose
of this paper, all of these factors will not be incor-
porated into a rigorous model. Instead, the ice tem-
perature will be related to the ambient air temper-
ature through empirical data. Figure 7 shows the
mean air temperature related to the average ice-sur-
face temperature measured at two locations in the
Canadian Arctic. Each set o f data span a full winter
with values averaged over two week intervals. Al-
though there is scatter in the data, it will be as-
* 0
O SlralhconaSound
-s
• CanadaPoinl o O
-10
~eo ~ 00 =0 -• Ts Ta
=

while the top of the ice may be colder or warmer

than this, depending upon the time o f the year. In
-25
general, if the air temperature is lower, there is a if)
w -30 I I I I I I I
linear temperature gradient in the ice. If the air is -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5
warmer, there is a parabolic-shaped temperature AVERAGEAIR TEMPERATURE[ °C}
profile (Weeks and Ackley, 1982). The tempera-
Fig. 7. Variation of the average ice-surface temperature with
ture of the top ice surface, although related to the the average air temperature for two locations in the Canadian
air temperature, is not necessarily the same as the Arctic.
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF SEA ICE SHEETS
sumed that the air temperature and surface temper-
ature are related as:
T,=Ta f o r - 2 > Ta> - 10 ] individual layers.
Ts--0.6Ta - 4 for T ~ < - 10 (16)
The curves representing these equations are shown
in Fig. 7. Note that the correspondence between the
two temperatures close to the freezing point reflects
either early winter conditions when the snow cover
is thin, or late spring when the ice temperature ap-
proaches an isothermal temperature close to the
melting point.
Throughout most of the growth season in the Arc-
tic, the ice maintains a linear temperature profile
ranging from T, at the surface to Ta at the bottom
of the ice. Since there can be a significant change in
temperature with depth, it is necessary to account
for this. This can be approximated by slicing the ice
into layers and assigning to each layer a tempera-
ture equal to the average temperature of the layer.
It was found that subdividing the ice sheet into nine
(9) layers gave good accuracy and convergence for
calculating the compressive strength. For the pres-
ent model, the average temperature o f each of these
layers was determined assuming a linear profile be-
tween the ice surface temperature and the bottom
ice temperature. The temperature (Tn) for layer n
(with n = 1 being the top layer) is given by:
T,,=Ts-[(Ts-TB)/18]--(n-1)[(T~-TB)/9]
(17)
This temperature value is calculated for each layer
and used to determine the total porosity of the layer.
The strength of each layer is then determined from
the average porosity of the layer. Since the defining
equation for the ice strength is dependent upon the
ice structure, the model can incorporate either a
granular or columnar ice structure in each layer.
By using Eqs. 8-17 it is now possible to express
the total porosity of the ice in terms of the air tem-
perature (Ta), ice thickness (hi) and bulk ice den-
sity (p) as:
VT= 1 + 0.---~-- 1.403)< 10-4Ti
[F3(h,)
+P[F,(T~) ]]/[1 +F2(T~)] (18)
where the average ice temperature ( Ti ) is related to
the air temperature through Eqs. 16 and 17. The uni-
axial compressive strength can be calculated using
235
Eqs. 5-7, taking into account the ice structure. The
compressive strength of the full ice sheet is calcu-
lated by averaging the strength values of the nine
COMPARISON WITH EXXON DATA
In order to check the accuracy of this model, a
comparison can be made to the large-scale tests per-
formed by Exxon. Table 5 lists the test information
given by Exxon for the two test series in 1979-80
and 1980-81. In all of these tests large ice beams
were loaded in the horizontal direction. In using the
present model, the only values which are required
are the ice thickness, the strain rate, the bulk den-
sity and the air temperature. The first two factors
are given by Exxon. The bulk density of this ice is
not given, but based on the density values in Table
4 for Beaufort Sea ice, a value of 0.907 Mg m -3
would be appropriate. The Exxon results give the
average ice temperature instead of the air tempera-
ture. This average ice temperature was assumed to
be at the mid-point of the ice sheet. Since the ice
tested by Exxon was mostly columnar in structure,
a model for the ice of a predominantly columnar ice
structure was used. Using these values for the input
parameters, the full sheet compressive strength was
calculated for all of the Exxon test conditions. A
comparison of the results is shown in Fig. 8. There
is excellent agreement between the calculated val-
ues and those measured by Exxon in the large-scale
w
_o _
(,9
LIJ
q,-
co
O
I [ t I
1 2 3 4
LARGE - SCALE MEASURED
STRENGTH (EXXON) [MPa]
Fig. 8. Comparison of the calculated sea-ice sheet strength with
that measured by Exxon in large-scale field tests. Note the
good predictive capabilities of the present model.
236 TIMCO AND FREDERKING

TABLE 5

Exxon test data

Exxon test Ice T~¢, Strain Measured compressive Calculated

number thickness (°C) rate strength compressive strength
(m) (s) (MPa) (MPa)

1979-1980
1 1.20 - 12.9 1.27E-06 0.66 1.07
7 1.52 - 10.5 1.43E- 05 1.30 1.81
8 1.54 - 10.5 1.10E-06 0.49 1.03
9 1.56 --10.6 7.90E-07 0.81 0.96

1980-1981
UC1 1.29 -10.7 9.20E-06 1.00 1.62
UC3 1.46 - 11.8 1.56E-04 2.86 3.11
UC5 1.61 -7.3 3.40E-04 3.53 3.41
UC6 1.47 - 5.9 9.10E-05 1.86 2.36
UC7 1.54 -4.3 1.33E-04 2.10 2.32
UC8 1.66 -4.2 9.00E- 05 1.82 2.15
WI 1.30 -5.1 2.16E-04 1.88 2.66
W2 1.29 - 3.4 7.50E-04 2.62 2.86

field tests. This comparison provides a basis for
considerable confidence in the present model.
PARAMETRIC VARIATIONS
Having established the defining equations for sea-
ice compressive strength, it is possible to do a par-
ametric variation of each of the important variables
to examine the relative influence of each one. This
is done for the horizontal loading direction by vary-
ing one parameter while maintaining all others
constant.
Grain structure
Sea ice is a mix of grain structures including $2
columnar, granular, frazil and discontinuous col-
umnar. The classic picture for sea ice structure (see
Weeks and Ackley, 1982) shows an upper granular
structure overlying a $2 columnar structure. Al-
though this type of composite structure is prevalent
in land-fast ice in Arctic regions, it is certainly not
unique. In many cases, especially in pack ice, there
mine the influence of the ice type on the uni-axial
compressive strength. Figure 9 shows a comparison
of the horizontal compressive strength of sea ice for
three different cases: all columnar, one-third gran-
ular/two-thirds columnar mix (with the granular ice
on top), and all granular. For this example an ice
thickness of 1.0 m, an air temperature of - 2 0 ° C ,
and a bulk ice density of 0.907 Mg m -3 were used.
In general, there is very little difference between
these mixes of ice types. This reflects the similarity
of the compressive strength of columnar and gran-
ular ice with horizontal loading (compare Figs. 2
and 4 ). For the rest of the paper, the grain structure
will be taken as one (top) layer of granular ice with
the remainder columnar ice.
10
"l-
h-
(.9 ALL GRANULAR .... : ::_ ~
Z
w
n~
oO
LU
>

CO
~:_\j:>l ALL COLUM~O C
can be considerable "banding" of alternating layers W 33% GRANULAR P = 0 . 9 0 7 Mg-m -3

of columnar and granular ice, often with discontin- 0.1

O 10 .7 10 .6 10 "s 10 .4 10 .3
uous columnar ice. Moreover, in certain areas, con- O
S T R A I N RATE [s "1]
siderable frazil ice has been observed on the bottom
of an ice sheet. Thus the overall structure of the ice Fig. 9. Parametric variation showing the influence of the grain
can be quite variable and it is important to deter- structure on the strength of an ice sheet.
C O M P R E S S I V E S T R E N G T H O F SEA I C E S H E E T S 237

Ice thickness Bulk ice density

Figure 10 shows the variation of the strength with Figure 12 shows the influence of the bulk ice den-
ice thickness. For this figure, an air temperature of sity on the compressive strength. For this figure, an
- 2 0 ° C and an ice density of 0.907 Mg m -3 were ice thickness of 1 m and an air temperature of
chosen. For any given strain rate, the strength of the - 2 0 ° C were chosen. The figure illustrates the sig-
ice generally increases as the ice thickens. This trend nificant influence which the density can have on the
simply reflects the fact that the average ice salinity strength of the ice. Usually, however, the bulk ice
decreases with increasing ice thickness (see Fig. 6). density is relatively constant throughout the year.
As previously discussed, the bulk ice density de-
creases in the spring as the ice warms and starts to
o_ 10 melt.
= 1 0 - 3 s -1
-r
I-. J ~ = 10-4S -1 n 10
(.9
Z ~ = 10-5S-1
LU "r
rr
I-- =10"Ss -1 I-. b. = I 0"a s'~
CO 1 (5
~ =10-7s-1 z
ILl uJ
> nr
I-
CO CO
UJ Ta = - 2 0 oC = 10 "~ S "~
n- UJ
(3- P =0.907 Mg-m 3 ~ ~ | 0-~ s -~
CO
O 0.1 i i Or)
(D LU
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 rr" hi= lm
n
Ta = - 2 0 ° C
ICE S H E E T T H I C K N E S S [ m ] 0.1 i r i
O
0.82 0.84 0.86 0.88 0.90
Fig. 10. Parametric variation showing the influence of the ice
sheet thickness on the strength of an ice sheet. B U L K ICE D E N S I T Y [ M g - m -3]

Fig. 12. Parametric variation showing the influence of the bulk

ice density on the strength of an ice sheet.
Air temperature

Figure 11 shows the influence of the air tempera-

ture on the compressive strength of sea ice. For this SEASONAL VARIATIONS
figure, an ice thickness of 1 m and a density of 0.907
Mg m -3 were chosen. As expected, the ice gets A procedure has been established for determin-
stronger with lower air temperature. ing the seasonal strength of sea ice from a knowl-
edge of air temperatures and ice thicknesses. These
data are readily available from various meteorolog-
~E 1o ical stations in the Arctic. It only remains to make
"1- E =10-3s-I
some judgements as to the grain structure and den-
(.9 ~== 1 0 " 4 S - I
Z sity of the ice cover and the full sheet-ice strength
LU
ri- can be calculated. To illustrate this approach, an ex-
~= 10.6S.1 .... ~
CO 1 ample for the Canadian Beaufort Sea will be devel-
LU E= 10-7S-1
> oped and then an indication of regional variations
CO in the Arctic will be provided.
LU h i = 1.0m
¢¢
(3- P = 0 . 9 0 7 M g - m "3
Average strength values in the Beaufort Sea
O0.1
(D
-50 -40 -30 -20 -10
The landfast and transition zone ice of the south-
AIR T E M P E R A T U R E [oc]
ern Beaufort Sea has been an area of considerable
Fig. 11. Parametric variation showing the influence of the air offshore petroleum exploration activity. To illus-
temperature on the strength of an ice sheet. trate the prediction methodology, meterological and
238 TIMCO AND FREDERKING

ice thickness data from Tuktoyaktuk, N W T will be
used (Beaufort Sea - - Mackenzie Delta Environ-
mental Impact Statement, 1982 ). These data, which
represent average values for this region are pre-
sented by month in Table 6. It is assumed that the
ice cover is made up of a surface layer of granular
ice underlain by eight layers of columnar ice. Fur-
ther, the bulk density for all months is assumed to
be 0.907 Mg m -3, even though it undoubtedly de-
creases slightly in May and June. Taking these val-
ues as inputs for the model, ice cover strengths for
various strain rates were calculated from October 1
to July 1. These are plotted in Fig. 13. The increase
in strength to a maximum in February is evident as
is the subsequent reduction in the spring. The curves
for the May and June period are shown as dashed
lines since ice strength deterioration in this period
is still not well defined (because of uncertainties of
the value of the bulk ice density).
Figure 13 shows the strength variations through
one "average" winter in the Beaufort Sea region in
Canada. However, for purposes of design, it is nec-
essary to know extreme ice strengths as well as av-
erage ice strengths. Since the probabilities of ex-
treme air temperatures and ice thicknesses are
known from the meteorological data, extreme ice
strengths can also be established. This will be inves-
tigated in a future paper (Timco and Frederking,
1989).

TABLE 6
Average strength variations in the Canadian
Tuktoyaktuk data Arctic

Date Ice Air To explore the regional variation in seasonal

thickness temperature
strength, air temperatures and ice thicknesses at six
(m) (°C)
stations (AES, 1982) in the Canadian Arctic were
mid-Oct 0.15 -7 examined. Using similar assumptions to those above
mid-Nov 0.45 - 19 for grain structure and density, seasonal variations
mid-Dec 0.80 -25 in compressive strength have been calculated. A
mid-Jan 1.15 -27
compilation of the results is presented in Fig. 14.
mid-Feb 1.40 -29
mid-Mar 1.65 -24 These curves indicate both the length of the ice sea-
mid-Apt 1.80 - 17 son and the influence of the local climate and ice
mid-May 1.85 -5 thickness on ice sheet strength.
mid-Jun 1.80 - 3

S U M M A R Y AND CONCLUSIONS
W
10 This paper has developed equations relating the
"I-
= 10"3S "t
uni-axial compressive strength of a sea ice sheet
t.-
(.9
(~ = 1 0 - 4 S "1 - ~
solely to the environmental conditions. During the
Z
LU development of the equations a number of approx-
n.-
i-
1
imations and decisions were necessarily made. In
. . . . . (~ = 1 0 " 7 S "1 ~ -~ ~
LU
_ ~

all cases the approximation arose either because of

>
~ . incomplete knowledge of ice behaviour, or simply
o')
LU
n"
due to the complex and diverse nature of the ice it-
0.. self. More information is required on the relation-
O 0.1 ship between the air temperature and the ice tem-
o O N D J F M A M J
perature, and on the seasonal variations of the bulk
DATE
density of the ice in the Arctic regions. In spite of
Fig. 13. Ice sheet strengths through an average winter at Tuk- the approximations, there was excellent agreement
toyaktuk in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. between the calculated sea ice strengths with those
COMPRESSIVE S T R E N G T H O F SEA ICE SHEETS 239

>.

/ / ~ ~

~ I I I I I I ~ \ ,-.., j \ w I r-I ~ I I
\ ~ ~ °° \ _~ P "81 ,,/ ,,I -t

t_.-'/ _ J ° 45_)4~"~ .J'~'> I,~ °.

r-

.y-~--~~2 h ?) ,,,I / / 4

i.
<

e,

¢2
;o

•\"il
I 1 I I I I I ~
;//j
~ 1 / / .- ........ ----- . - . .
0

Y
0

6
i.

",.i,°o- °
240
m e a s u r e d in large-scale field tests. T h e p r e s e n t ap-
proach should aid design engineers who require a
good e s t i m a t e o f the c o m p r e s s i v e strength, b u t lack
either test data or the test e q u i p m e n t necessary to
p e r f o r m strength m e a s u r e m e n t s .
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Cox, G.F.N. and Weeks, W.F., 1974. Salinity variations in
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