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Published February 10, 1983 | Published
Journal Article Open

The dynamic tensile strength of ice and ice-silicate mixtures

Abstract

We determined the dynamic tensile strength of ice and ice silicate mixtures at strain rates of ∼10^4 s^(−1). At these strain rates, ice has a tensile strength of ∼17 MPa, and ice-silicate mixtures with 5 and 30 wt % sand content have strengths of ∼20 and 22 MPa, respectively. These values lie significantly above tensile strengths of ∼1.6 MPa for ice and of ∼5−6 MPa for frozen silt, measured at strain rates of ∼10^(−2) to 10° s^(−1), but markedly below values found for a variety of rocks at comparable strain rates. Results of the present experiments are used to derive parameters for continuum fracturing models in icy media, which are used to determine relations between tensile strength and strain rate, and to predict stress and damage histories as well as size frequency distributions for ice and ice-silicate fragments. It is found that tensile strength σ_M is related to strain rate by σ_M ∝ ε_0^[0.25–0.3], similar to results obtained for other geological materials. The increase of small fragments relative to larger fragments with increasing strain rate, as predicted by the continuum model, is a result which parallels findings in laboratory impact experiments.

Additional Information

Copyright 1983 by the American Geophysical Union. (Received August 12, 1982; revised November 11, 1982; accepted November 19, 1982.) Paper number 2B1806. We appreciate the skillful help of E. Gelle, W. Ginn, and M. Long in the experiments. Special thanks to T. Feng, who spent many hours of sample preparation in the cold lab. The use of the cold lab facility and helpful advice proffered by B. Kamb are appreciated. Careful reviews by S. K. Croft and M. Cintala are gratefully acknowledged. M. Lange is supported by a stipend from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Work was supported under NASA grant NGL-05-002-105. Contribution 3806, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology.

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August 19, 2023
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