The experimental procedure and test data analysis are given for large-scale indentation test which was carried out during winters 1987-go on the coastal zone of Japan sea near Vladivosok. A special experimental device with high stiffness and hydraulic drive was made. The tests were conducted with natural ice frozen in specially outted holes with velocities and ice thickness and strength. Test results indicate that failure nature of ice plate depends on indentation velocity, aspect ratio and ice strength. Mainly a splitting was observed on ice fragments. At some oases the plate in stability and crushing were observed. The ice force had sudden jumps of stochastic nature. In brittle failure the force varied with cyclicity. A spectral processing of data gave the dominant frequencies of ice force. The middle value of ice force have good agreement with the Code (1988) recommendation. The test data were used for theoretical model examination for ice-structure interaction.
The ice force analysis is one of the main problem for engineering design practice of offshore structures in ice covering seas. The known models of ice-structure interactions need the experimental base to explain its complex nature. The small-scale tests are most convenient because the field experiments are expensive and laboratory experiments are not so accurate in reflection of similarity with real interaction. There were m∼lY small-scale experiments conduoted up to date (Croasdale, 1974, Croasdale et aI, 1977, Inoue and Koma, 1981"), Nevel et aI, 1977, Ojima et aI, 1981), Oshima et aI, 1980, Taylor. 1981, Zabilansky at aI, 1971)). On the base of this stUdies amny mathematical models were proposed accounting for failure process, strel1gth properties of ioe, size effeots ans so on. But the problem is very diffioult of modelling the dyn∼llic ice-structure interaction.
