THE BRITTLE FAILURE OF ICE UNDER COMPRESSION

This paper reviews progress during the past decade in understanding th e brittle compressive failure of ice. Evidence is presented for the fr ictional crack sliding-wing mechanism and for the role of localized fr agmentation. The ductile-to-brittle transition is explained in terms o f the suppression of crack growth and is modeled in terms of Ashby-Hal lam wing crack mechanics and Riedel-Rice crack-tip creep. The brittle compressive strength is related to ice-ice friction. Modeling and expe riment suggest that the transition strain rate of cracked ice scales a s (crack size)(-1.5) and that its brittle strength scales as (crack si ze)(-0.5), at least for small specimens. Possible size effects are not ed.