Author(s): Yubo Liu; Qingkai Wang; Peng Lu; Zhijun Li
Linked Author(s): Zhijun Li, Peng Lu, Yubo Liu, Qingkai Wang
Keywords: Brackish ice; Sea ice; Flexural strength; Effective elastic modulus; Flexural behavior
Abstract: Flexural strength and effective elastic modulus are key parameters for evaluating the mechanical behavior of sea ice. During the winter of 2025–2026, three field campaigns were carried out on brackish ice and sea ice, combining 18 cantilever beam tests, 34 three-point bending tests, and 147 disc bending tests within one unified workflow. Depth-dependent variations, porosity dependence, inter-method differences, and empirical relationships among the three bending methods were analyzed. The results show clear vertical heterogeneity in flexural behavior. For the two growth-stage ice covers, relatively high strength generally occurred in the upper or subsurface layers, whereas the melt-stage sea ice showed a clear upper-high and lower-low pattern. Flexural strength ranged from 227.7–511.3 kPa for cantilever beams, 151.65–2247.07 kPa for three-point bending, and 442.76–4081.02 kPa for disc bending, with the general ordering σd > σ3p > σc. In contrast, the effective elastic modulus obtained from cantilever beam tests (0.73–4.25 GPa) was generally higher than that from three-point bending tests (0.25–2.78 GPa). For empirical prediction, the tensile-side outer 1/8 ice-thickness average gave the best agreement for disc-to-cantilever prediction (R2=0.34), whereas a depth-matched averaging approach was the most suitable for disc-to-three-point bending prediction (R2=0.89). These results show that small-scale disc bending data can be used to estimate larger-scale flexural responses when tensile-side contribution or depth correspondence is properly considered.
Year: 2026