Experimental procedures for obtaining the crushing strength and pressure profiles of cone shaped ice samples are presented. These experiments were conducted as the part of the STePS2 (Sustainable Technology for Polar Ships and Structures) research project at Memorial University, St. John`s, Canada. An objective of this project is to study the response of a full size structural grillage for both quasi-static and dynamic ice loading. To prepare for the structural tests, both 1/4 m dia. and 1m dia. conical ice samples are being crushed against a rigid high-resolution pressure panel in quasi-static conditions. Data from the tests on the pressure panel will help to set the conditions for the later quasi-static and dynamic experiments on the steel grillage.
Contact pressure profiles are obtained at each time step during the experiments. The pressure profiles obtained reveal the shape and variability of the high pressure zones that develop during ice-structure contact. The paper describes the experimental procedure including; making the ice samples, shaping the samples, crushing tests and data analysis. Preliminary experimental data from both small cones (i.e., 25 cm diameter) and large cones (i.e., 1 m diameter) tests are provided in this paper.
