Experimental study of ice-cylindrical pile interaction

The experimental procedure and test data analysis are for a large-scale indentation test which was carried during the winters of 1987-90 on the coastal zone of the Japan Sea near Vladivostok. A special experimental device with high stiffness and hydraulic drive was made. The tests were conducted with natural ice frozen in specially cut holes with different velocities and ice thickness and strength. Test results indicate that the failure nature of an ice plate depends on indentation velocity, aspect ratio and ice strength. Mainly a slitting was observed on ice fragments. For some cases plate instability and crushing were observed. The ice force had sudden jumps of a stochastic nature. In brittle failure the force varied with cyclicity. Spectral data processing gave the dominant frequencies of the ice force. The middle value of the ice force gave good agreement with the Code (1988) recommendation. The test data were used for theoretical model examination for ice-structure interaction.