Author(s): Dianzhe Li; Lu Liu; Shunying Ji
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Sea ice; Discrete element method; Full-rate loading; Strain-rate effect; Pressure-dependent failure
Abstract: To address the difficulty of uniformly describing low-rate block fracture and high-rate crushing–pulverization of sea ice, this study develops a full-rate discrete element failure model incorporating strain-rate and pressure effects. Columnar polycrystalline sea ice is represented by dilated polyhedral elements, and a tensile–crushing dual-channel failure criterion is formulated based on an interfacial bonded constitutive model. A post-failure tangential weakening treatment is further introduced to capture the fluid-like spreading of fragmented ice under high-speed impact. The model is validated against quasi-static compression and drop-weight impact tests. Results show that the proposed model can reasonably reproduce crack propagation and block separation under low-rate loading, as well as contact-end crushing, pulverization, and debris dispersion under dynamic impact, with overall agreement between numerical and experimental results.
Year: 2026