The overall objective of the proposed research is to describe a systematic series of slide-hold-slide (or start-stop-start) experiments on first-year sea ice, designed to determine the effect of healing on the resistance to frictional sliding of ice-on-ice. Frictional sliding plays a fundamental role in the brittle compressive failure of sea ice and, in ice loading of structures. The effort will be performed in Dartmouth's Ice Research Laboratory, and will utilize a recent upgrade of those facilities, with the objective of improving the ability to predict ice-induced loads on engineered structures used in the exploration and production of oil and gas from beneath the ice cover on the Arctic Ocean.
The third Progress Report was accepted on September 16, 2015. Due to inconsistent labratory results, the research approach has been modified. Rather than testing under a proportional biaxial loading, tests are being conducted under uniaxial loading after healing is impated under a static biaxial load.