Acra metall. mater. Vol. 43, No. 6, pp.

2303-2315, 1995
Copyright 0 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon
0956-7151(94)00421-8 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0956-7151/95 $9.50+0.00

THE FAILURE OF FRESH-WATER GRANULAR ICE

UNDER MULTIAXIAL COMPRESSIVE LOADING
J. WEISS? and E. M. SCHULSON$
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, U.S.A.

(Received 18 March 1994; in revised form 20 September 1994)

Abstract-The failure of fresh-water granular ice under multiaxial compressive loading was investigated
at - 10, -20 and -40°C at 10 -3 s-‘, using a true multiaxial servo-hydraulic testing system. The tests
were carried out on cubic samples proportionately loaded under different confinement ratios
R = a,/~, = ~~/a,. Two regimes were revealed at all three temperatures. Under lower confinement the
failure stress, cr,(, increases sharply with R, whereas at higher confinement ollf is roughly constant. Both
brittle and pseudo-ductile behavior were observed under lower confinement. depending upon the confining
stress and the temperature, while the behavior was brittle under higher confinement. An analysis of the
brittle to pseudo-ductile transition within the lower confinement regime was performed in terms of the
frictional crack sliding/wing-crack mechanism. The high-confinement regime is characterized by intense
intergranular damage. The final failure, however, is caused not by the linking of the uniformly distributed
microcracking, but by damage localized at the ice/platen interface. The saturation in the failure stress with
increasing confinement is attributed to a mechanism specific to the boundary conditions and not to the
ice per se.

1. INTRODUCTION stress with increasing temperature, increasing strain

The compressive failure of brittle materials under
moderate confinement is generally characterized by a
failure stress which increases sharply with increasing
confinement and by a macroscopic failure mode
which changes from axial splitting to shear faulting as
the confining stress increases. Rock, for instance,
illustrates these effects (see, e.g. [l, 21). Such behavior
is usually described as Coulombic in character, owing
to the expansion of the failure surface with increasing
hydrostatic stress, and is interpreted in terms of the
nucleation, growth and interaction of cracks (see, e.g.
[3-71). Frictional sliding across the faces ‘of cracks
inclined to the direction of greatest compression and
the attendant formation of crack extensions or wings
along this direction are important elements in several
models [7-l l] and account for the failure modes and
for the dependence of the failure stress on the hydro-
static component of the stress tensor.
Ice exhibits similar characteristics. When rapidly
compressed, it fails in a brittle manner under an axial
stress which increases sharply with increasing
confinement [ 12-151. Cracks nucleate continuously
during loading [ 16-181 and then grow and link up to
form either a macroscopic split (unconfined loading)
or a fault (moderately confined loading). Wing crack-
ing has been clearly documented [19-221, and has
been shown to account for the decrease in the failure
tNow at Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Gtophysique
I’Environnement (Grenoble), BP96, Saint-Martin
d’Heres, Cedex, France.
fTo whom all correspondence should be addressed.
rate and increasing grain size [20] as well as for the
increase in the failure stress with increasing confining
stress [14]. Frictional sliding/wing cracking has been
shown to account also for the transition from brittle
to ductile behavior, which occurs upon lowering the
strain rate, by incorporating crack-tip creep [20,23].
Under high confining pressures the growth and
interaction of cracks is suppressed, although crack
nucleation may continue. The failure process thus
changes, either to cataclastic flow (i.e. pseudo-ductile
deformation) characterized by uniformly distributed
microcracking or to true plastic flow based upon
dislocation mechanics [6,7]. Both mechanisms have
been identified in rocks and minerals. In ice, however,
they have only begun to be explored.
This paper is a contribution to this development. It
considers the effect of a confining stress on brittle
compressive failure of ice Ih and addresses the tran-
sition from one kind of deformation to another as the
confining stress increases.
2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
2.1. Specimen preparation
Test specimens of fresh-water ice with equiaxed,
randomly oriented grains (so-called granular ice)
were prepared in the Ice Research Laboratory of
Thayer School of Engineering. The ice was made
from presieved seeds and distilled, deionized and
de
degassed water, using a variation on the method
described by Cole [24]. An aluminium rectangular
mold was filled with fragments of one size of ice in

2303
2304 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE

detail by Gies [26]. The platens were designed to be

Testing conditions
I. (T2=03=bI
2. a3=0 ; o2=Ra1
3. CY~=(TI ; oj=Ro~=Raz
Fig. 1. Schematic sketch of the multiaxial testing system. To
avoid collision of the brush platens during testing, the cube
was slightly larger than the length of the platens. The
applied stress ratios are noted.
order to control the grain size, and then evacuated at
0°C over 3 h. Afterwards, the water was passed slowly
through the mold and the ice-water mixture was
frozen radially inward using cooling plates at - 5°C
attached to the sides of the mold. Air bubbles,
generally concentrated along grain boundaries, could
not be avoided. However, the porosity was low
(<0.2%), as evidenced from measured densities at
- 10°C [25] between 917.0 and 918.2 kg/m3 compared
with a theoretical density of 918.7 kg/m3 at this
temperature. Using a milling machine situated in a
cold room at - lO”C, the ingots were machined into
cubes 155 mm on edges (fO.l mm); the faces were
orthogonal to within 4.5 x 10e4 radians. The grain
size, d, as measured using the method of linear
intercepts, was 7 mm, unless otherwise noted.
2.2. Experiments
Experiments were performed using a true multiax-
ial MTS testing system (MATS) equipped with a
multi-channel data acquisition system. MATS is a
servo-hydraulic testing system comprised of three,
mutually perpendicular pairs of opposing actuators
(Fig. 1). In the present work the loads were transmit-
ted through brush-type brass platens described in
longitudinally stiff and transversely compliant and,
therefore, to exert little constraint on the ice at the
interface. Gerstle et al. [27] used similar kinds of
platens for triaxial compressive tests of concrete and
Haiisler [28] used them on ice. To measure displace-
ments, three pairs of MTS displacement gauges were
mounted diagonally across opposing sets of bristles.
The testing system is installed within a cold-room
which can reach below -40°C and hold the tempera-
ture to within f0.2”C. Experiments were carried out
at - 10, -20 and -40°C.
The loading was performed under displacement
control which was calculated to impart a strain-rate
of lO-3 SK’ (unless otherwise noted) along the direc-
tion of highest load; the loads giving Q*and o3 were
slaved to the load giving u, . In the following discus-
sion, the principal stresses 6,) o2 and u3 are taken to
be positive and cr,, to be the largest (compressive)
stress. The failure stress, crlfwas defined as the highest
stress registered during the test. Most of the tests were
carried out with a degree of confinement, R, main-
tained constant throughout the test and defined as
02=03=Rc,. (1)
Some experiments were also performed with o2 # o3
in order to specify the role of the intermediate
principal stress; biaxial loading with o3 = 0 is a
particular case and was also investigated.
For reasons which will become apparent, ad-
ditional tests, interrupted before final failure, were
carried out to follow step-by-step the failure process
under high confinement. Table 1 summarizes the
loading histories. As discussed by Couture and Schul-
son [29], an important point of procedure is the
unloading rate: if too high, cracks nucleate while the
load drops. To avoid this complication, the ice was
slowly unloaded at a strain rate of 10-6s-1.
2.3. Observation of damage
Examinations were made of all the specimens and
of thin (N 1 mm) sections prepared from the speci-
mens to determine the modes of failure and to
characterize internal microcracking. The thin sections
were obtained from the bulk of the specimens and

Table 1. Interrupted tests. General conditions: T = -40°C; d = 7 mm; hydrostatic loading (0, = oz = 0,)
Strain-rate Strain-rate Maximum Damage
(loading) (unloading) stress Internal Large along Surface
Test No. (s-l) (SKI) (MPa) crackina? faultine? edges? damage?
Sudden 29 Yes, Yes Yes Yes
(failure) dense
10-l 20 Yes, No Yes Yes,
dense few
10-e 1.7 No No Yes, No
few
10-e 11.5 Yes No Yes No
10-G 14 Yes, No Yes No
dense
10-l 28 Yes Yes Yes Yes
10-e 25 Yes, No Yes Yes
saarse
 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE
were made and examined within 48 h after testing.
The time allowed the cracked ice to slowly warm from
-40 to - 10°C (at which temperature it was sec-
tioned and examined) but not to heal.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Brittle-ductile transition
Three kinds of deformation behavior were ob-
served, depending upon temperature and confine-
ment. At - 10 and -20°C under very low
confinement the ice was macroscopically brittle: the
load-time strain curve was nearly linear and was
terminated by a sudden drop in load when the ice
collapsed through either axial splitting (R = 0) or
shear faulting (R > 0). As R increased, the ice became
macroscopically ductile: the load-time curve revealed
hardening and softening stages, and the material did
not collapse. Instead, homogeneous and intense dam-
age developed (see Section 3.3.1. for more details).
Under still higher confinement, the behavior was
again macroscopically brittle. However, upon exam-
ining the specimens after testing, it was clear that this
brittle regime, denoted B,, was different from the
low-confinement brittle regime (denoted B,) de-
scribed above. Under the higher confinement, the
edges and the faces of the samples were crushed, a
feature not seen under lower confinement (see Section
3.3.2 for more details). Figure 2 summarizes this
behavior on a temperature-confinement (T-R) dia-
gram on which the two successive transitions, brittle-
to-ductile (B, /D) and ductile-brittle (D/B,) are
represented by branches AB and CD, respectively. At
-40°C the ice was brittle under all confinements,
although a transition from the B, mode to the B,
mode (as evident from the onset of surface damage)
was observed at R = 0.15.
The transitions are affected by the grain size in a
manner similar to that reported by Batto and Schul-
son [23]. They studied the brittle-to-ductile transition
in anisotropic fresh-water columnar ice under uniax-
ial compression across the columns, and found that
the transition strain-rate increases with decreasing
grain size, thereby increasing the domain over which
the ice is ductile. Similarly, in the present case branch
AB on the T-R plot shifts to the left upon decreasing
grain size, again increasing the ductile domain. This
point was evident from experiments at -40°C on
samples of different grain sizes, ranging from 1 to
7 mm. For the most finely grained (d x 1 mm) ice the
B, /D transition occurred at R x 0.1, Fig. 2. Upon
increasing the confinement to R = 0.5, the most finely
grained ice was once again brittle (B2). The dashed
line on Fig. 2 indicates the expected evolution of the
ductile domain with decreasing grain size, although
more data are needed to specify the evolution more
precisely.
The first transition, B,/D, is similar to that ob-
served in many rocks upon increasing the confining
pressure (see, e.g. [2]). It is similar also to that recently
AM 43/C-L
2305
I\
E3
-4ooC
40 ’ \o
8\80000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
d=lmm
0’
Confinement R
Fig. 2. Macroscopic behavior of fresh-water granular ice in
step with temperature and confinement ratio (g = 10e3 SK’;
d = 7 mm). The branch AB of the full curve represents the
B,/D transition, the branch CD the D/B, transition. The
dashed curve A’B’ represents the evolution of the B,/D
transition for smalle; grain-sizes (d x I mm). The &a
plotted at T = -42°C were actually obtained at -40°C
from more finely grained (d x 1 mm) ice. Solid symbols:
brittle behavior B, Open symbols: ductile behavior. Pointed
symbols: transitional behavior. Shaded symbols: brittle
behavior B,.
reported by Rist and Murrel [15] for finely grained
(d = 1.7 mm) fresh-water ice at -40°C confined in a
pressure cell. In the latter case the B,/D transition
occurred at R x 0.1, in good agreement with the
present observations for d x 1 mm. The second duc-
tile-to-brittle transition (D/B,), however, was not
observed by Rist and Murrel, even though they
applied larger confining pressures (up to 46 MPa)
than applied here (up to 30 MPa). This difference
suggests that the D/B, transition is related to the
different method of confining the ice (solid vs fluid)
and, thus, to the boundary conditions.
Nickolayev and Schulson [30] also observed two
successive transitions, B/D and D/B, in anisotropic
columnar, saline ice biaxially loaded across the
columns at - 10°C at 1 to 3 x 10e3 SK’. In that case,
however, the second (D/B) transition is related not to
the boundary conditions, but to a change from
cracking along the columnar grains to cracking
across the columns.
3.2. Failure stress
3.2.1. The effect of confinement. Figure 3 shows the
largest principal stresses at failure, o,~, under a
symmetric confining stress, q = Q~. Two regimes are
apparent. At lower confinement (R <R,,), which
includes both the first brittle and the ductile regimes
at the higher temperatures, blf increases sharply with
 2306 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE

30
I
I

25

20
'iii

$15
z
?!
3
%
IL 10

I I I I
0 I 3 I
I

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Confinement: R

35 35, I
Lb) I
30

0
0
0
25
0 0
'iii

%20
I
2

g15
z
If

10

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Confinement: R Confinement: R

Fig. 3. Failure stress vs confining ratio. The curve shows the comparison between experimental results
and model predictions [equation (3)]. Solid symbols: brittle behavior B, . Open symbols: ductile behavior.
Pointed symbols: transitional behavior. Shaded symbols: brittle behavior B,. (a) At T = - 10°C; (b) at
T = -20°C; and (c) at T = -40°C.

increasing R,whereas at higher confinement (R > R,)

oIris essentially constant (uir= uc). These two
Table 2. Experimental values of o,, m, and R, at different tempera-
tures. Comparison between experimental threshold confinement, Ro,
regimes characterize the behavior at all three tem-
and calculated values, R,, from equation (4) peratures. The saturation stress, cc, and the sensi-
Temperature tivity of the failure stress to confinement, m, under
lower confinement increase with decreasing tempera-
Parameters -10°C - 20°C -40°C
ture, whereas the critical ratio, &, decreases, Table
s(MW 21 25 29
2. The transition from the lower to the higher confine-
m(MPa) 65 80 140
&I 0.3 0.25 0.15 ment regime corresponds to the onset of surface
Z 1.89 1.65 0.91 damage, implying that the transition corresponds to
R,. 0.33 0.29 0.14
the transition to the second brittle (B2) failure mode
 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE 2307

35

30
v

25 8
Q
8
%20
ii
Ii
u)
e! 15
z!
z
T IL" T=-W'C;;40-3 s-1

7
? ?
10 0 R=O
T T

m R=O.M

n A Ra.1
5

V R=OS

01 : ~ I ) I / ~ I : 1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Confinement: R
Fig. 4. Failure stress vs confining ratio at -40°C for tests d(-l/2) (mm-W)
with cr2# (r3. Comparison with g2 = rr) test data (solid and Fig. 5. Failure stress vs (grain-size))“* for different confi-
shaded squares) from Fig. 3(c). For biaxial tests, R corre- ning ratios at -40°C. Again the solid and open symbols,
sponds to U&T, (oj = 0). For o2 = 6, tests, R corresponds to respectively, denote brittle and ductile behavior: the solid
symbols denote B, and the shaded, B,.

from either the ductile mode (D/B, at - 10 and principal stress, accounting for the absence of a
-20°C d = 7 mm) or the first brittle mode (B,/B, at significant effect of the intermediate principal stress
-40°C d = 7 mm), i.e. either R0 = RDIB2 or 02.
& = &, /B> . 3.2.3. The &Sect of grain size. Experiments at
3.2.2. The role of the intermediate principal stress. - 40°C on samples whose grain sizes ranged between
The intermediate principal stress, cr2, appears to have 1 and 7 mm showed that in both the low- and
no significant effect on the compressive strength in high-confinement regimes elf increased with decreas-
either the low- or high-confinement regime. This ing grain size. Although scattered, the data with one
point was evident from experiments at -40°C under exception can be reasonably well described in terms
triaxial (fr2 = 0, ; o3 = Ra, ) and under biaxial of de”* Fig. 5, and thus by the relationship used
(or = Ra, ; u3 = 0) loading, Fig. 4. Within the scatter [20]t to describe the dependence of the uniaxial brittle
in the data, ~,t for this triaxial stress state is the same compressive strength on grain size, viz.
as that for the triaxial stress state a2 = cr3= Ra,; and
o,l=a,+kd-“2 (2)
~,r for the biaxial stress state is essentially indepen-
dent of R and is about equal to the uniaxial failure where oD and k are constants, Table 3. The exception
stress. That o2 appears not to affect olr is reminiscent to this dependence are the data obtained under very
of the behavior of fresh-water columnar ice [22] low confinement (R = 0.05): these are too scattered to
biaxially loaded across (major stress) and along allow any good description. Under zero confinement
(minor stress) the columns. As will become apparent, and possibly under very low confinement (R = 0.05)
the triaxial compressive failure of granular ice with B,, = 0, while under higher confinement (R = 0.1 and
randomly oriented grains under low confinement is 0.5) o0 # 0 and increases as R increases. This differ-
similar to that of the columnar ice loaded and ence again suggests the operation of one kind of
moderately confined, as noted. In both cases the failure mechanism under lower confinement (B,, = 0
failure is controlled by the growth of cracks along when R < R,) and another kind under higher
planes perpendicular to the direction of the smallest confinement (a, > 0 when R > R,,), in keeping with
the two brittle failure modes already noted.

tit should be noted that Schulson [20] reported a value for Table 3. Values for the parameters in
k at -30°C at IOF SK’ which is about 30% higher than equation (2), obtained at -4o’C at
that noted above at -40°C under zero confinement. The 10m’s-’
difference probably reflects the use of bonded platens in
the earlier experiments and the attendant development
of radial confinement during loading, for, as suggested 0 0.57 0
0.1 0.44 19
[20] and now confirmed in the present tests, on, is very
0.5 0.47 21
sensitive to small degrees of confinement.
2308 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE

3.2.4. Comparisons. Returning to the effect of at - 1 1 + I°C at 10-3s - l ) and Fig. 6(b) shows Rist
confinement on the failure stress, it is instructive to and Murrel's data (obtained at - 2 0 ° C at 10 -3 s-l).
compare the present observations with those of Jones Aside from slightly lower failure stresses at low
[12] and of Rist and Murrel [15] who both used a confinements, owing to the coarser grain size, the
pressure cell to study the compressive failure of present data are in reasonably good agreement with
fresh-water granular ice of fine grain size. For this those generated using the pressure cells. In both cases
purpose the differential stress at failure, (tr:-a3)r, is of the differential stress increases with increasing
interest. Thus, Fig. 6(a) shows Jones' data (obtained confinement, implying that frictional crack sliding is
an important factor. Under higher confinement, how-
ever, the differential failure stresses differ. Those
20
(a) measured in the cell remain constant with increasing
confinement, while those measured in the MATS
decrease. In other words, the highest stress at failure,
g~f, continues to rise with confinement when
A ×
15 X
measured in the cell, but saturates when measured in
II. A k .X the MATS. This is further evidence that under the
X higher confining stresses imposed by the platens the
X T= qO*C
failure is affected by the boundary conditions.
i
~10
A ~ • A & This work

X ref. 12
That the differential stress at failure levels off when
measured in the pressure cell means that under high
&
confinement in the absence of a major influence of
boundary conditions a plastic process governs the
deformation of granular ice. Confinement per se thus
effects a transition to ductile behavior governed by
5
& dislocation mechanics, as noted by Rist and Murrel
[15].
A 3.3. Failure modes and internal cracking
0 i I q L I I i I 3.3. I. Low-confinement regime (R < Ro). Examin-
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 ations of thin-sections from specimens loaded either
Confinement: R uniaxially, biaxially or triaxially under low confine-
ment (R < R0) revealed transgranular microcracks
25 parallel to ¢rI . Occasionally these cracks appeared as
(b) out-of-plane extensions of a parent, intergranular
microcrack inclined at about 45 ° to a, (Fig. 7).
0
X ×
(Another example is given on Fig. 3 [14]). These
20
extensions, or wings, are significant because they
0 @
X¢) T= -20at
provide direct evidence of the occurrence of the
D. ®
0 @
frictional crack sliding/wing-crack mechanism (see
• 'This work
Section 4.1). That wings are not seen more frequently
rift. 15
means that they either form infrequently or, as
-I discussed by Cannon et al. [19] and by Schulson [20],
that it is difficult to capture the parent crack in a
thin-section from granular ice owing to the fact that
in this material, unlike columnar ice, the inclined
a cracks are restricted by the grain boundaries from
penetrating the aggregate.
The evolution of these microcracks depends on the
0 confinement and leads to different failure modes.
Under uniaxial compression [20], and under triaxial
loading at very small confinement (R = 0.02) the
I ' I J I ~ I
0.2 0.4 0.6 0,8 1 wings lengthen as tx, increases until they link up to
Confinement: R form axial shards or column-like faults parallel to ~,,
Fig. 6. Comparison between the differential failure stress Fig. 8(a). Under biaxial loading for all confinements,
obtained from the MATS (this work; d = 7mm; solid similar axial faults form, but as slabs along planes
symbols: brittle behavior Bt; open symbols: ductile behav- perpendicular to the direction of zero stress, Fig. 8(b).
ior; pointed symbols: intermediate behavior; shaded sym- In all cases the axial faults resulted from the propa-
bols: brittle behavior B2) and from a pressure cell device: (a)
comparison at - 10°C with the Jones [12] data (d ~ 1 mm; gation of few cracks through the specimen. Under
= 1.410 as-t) and (b) comparison at -20°C with the triaxial loading at slightly higher confinement
Rist and Murrel [15] data (d ~ 1.7 mm; ~ = 10-3 s-~). (R = 0.05), wing-crack growth is impeded so that
 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE 2309

Fig. 7. Low-confinement regime. Thin section showing an

intergranular crack (S) and wing-cracks extensions (W)
(T = -40°C; R = 0.06).

large splits do not form. Instead, macroscopic shear

faults develop, Fig. 8(c), although the mechanical
behavior remained brittle. The shear faults are highly
damaged zones comprised of fine and powdery ice
granules (<< 1 mm), inclined by about 30” to the 0,
axis. A similar transition from axial splitting to shear
faulting is well known in rock mechanics (see, e.g.
Janach [31] for granite) and, as pointed out by Ashby
and Hallam [7] and by Horii and Nemat-Nasser [6],
can be accounted for by the linking up of an echelon
of microcracks.
Shear faulting was not observed above the B,/D
transition. Instead, the ice was extensively damaged
by uniform distribution of intergranular and trans-
granular microcracks generally shorter than the grain
size, Fig. 8(d). Damage of this kind, as suggested by
Ashby and Hallam [7j and by Horii and Nemat-
Nasser [6], can lead to cataclastic flow which is a kind
of pseudo-plastic deformation (more later).
3.3.2. High-con$nernent regime (R > R,). The
transition from the low-confinement to high-confine-
ment regimes, noted by R = R, on the a,,-R curves
(Fig. 3) or by the D/B, and D,/B, transition on the

Fig. 8. Low-confinement regime: (a) axial

splitting under uniaxial compression (T = -40°C). (b) Thin
section observation of axial faulting (biaxial loading,
T = -40°C; the s, axis is vertical). The arrows indicate
inchned sliding cracks. (c) Shear faulting (R = 0.05,
T = -20°C:showing the cube after testine). (d) Ductile
behavior: thin sectionshowing uniformly di&b&d micro-
cracking (R = 0.2, T = -20°C). Fig. 8. (a-d).
2310 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE
Fig. 9. High-confinement regime: (a) thin section showing
intergranular damage and large faulting (T = -40°C;
R = 0.5); and (b) edges and surfaces damage (T = -40°C;
R = 1; showing the cube after testing).
T-R diagram (Fig. 2), is marked by new deformation
features. At the scale of the grain size, transgranular
crack extensions (i.e. wings) were not observed. In-
stead, intergranular damage formed throughout the
whole volume of the material, Fig. 9(a) and, as
already noted, localized crushing developed at the
ice/platen interfaces, Fig. 9(b). Final failure was
accompanied by faulting [Fig. 9(a)], although the
plane of the fault appeared not to be related to any
of the principal directions.
Interface crushing under high confinement was also
reported by Gratz and Schulson [32] who used the
same multiaxial testing system to study columnar
saline ice. In that case the phenomenon was observed
using both the brush platens and solid platens, and
the failure stress was the same for both kinds of
platen. This implies that localized contact failure
beneath the bristles, should it occur, is not the cause
of the failure.
4. DISCUSSION
To summarize, the experiments have shown that
when granular fresh-water ice is triaxially compressed
at a relatively high strain rate between solid loading
platens, its strength initially rises rather quickly with
increasing confinement and then remains more or less
constant as the confinement increases further. In both
the low-confinement and the high-confinement
regimes, the largest principal stress at failure increases
with decreasing temperature and with decreasing
grain size, but is independent of the intermediate
principal stress.
4.1. Low-confinement regime (R CR,)
More specifically, under lower confinement the
compressive strength depends upon (grain size)-“2
and failure occurs in a brittle manner through axial
splitting under uniaxial and biaxial loading, through
shear faulting under moderate triaxial confinement
and, if the ice is warm enough, through cataclastic
flow under somewhat higher confinement. Also, the
deformation under low confinement is accompanied
by the formation of transgranular wing-cracks paral-
lel to the u, axis which are sometimes observed in
association with intergranular parent cracks inclined
at about 45” to the 6, axis. These features are
important because they suggested that the compres-
sive failure of granular ice under low triaxial confine-
ment may be controlled by the frictional crack-sliding
wing-crack mechanism as developed by Horii and
Nemat-Nasser [6] and by Ashby and Hallam [7].
The principal features of this model are the follow-
ing: owing to parent crack-face sliding under the
resolved shear stress induced by the remote stress
field, local tensile stresses develop at the tips of the
inclined crack. When the mode I stress intensity
factor, K,, associated with the local tension reaches
the fracture toughness of the material, K,C, wing
extensions form and then lengthen in a macroscopi-
tally stable manner as further sliding occurs under an
increasing far-field stress. Sliding on the faces of the
closed parent-crack is a frictional process and, there-
fore, is confinement dependent. Under uniaxial and
biaxial compression wing-crack growth along planes
parallel to Q, or parallel to c, and a2 is not restrained
by the remote compressive stress. In these cases, final
failure occurs under essentially the same stress, o,r, by
the propagation and interaction of a few axial cracks
[see Fig. 8(a, b)]. Under triaxial loading, however, the
far-field stress impedes wing-crack growth. In this
case, larger values of Q, are required to lengthen the
wings, leading to shorter cracks, to greater crack
interaction (as manifested by shear faulting) and to
greater strengths.
More quantitatively, Schulson et al. [14] proposed
a derivative of the Ashby-Hallam analysis to explain
preliminary data on the brittle compressive failure of
granular ice under triaxial loading. Accordingly, by
assuming that the parent crack is inclined by 45” to
 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE
Table 4. Values of different material parameters used in the frictional crack sliding/wing-
crack mechanism analysis, at different temperatures. Since p is a function of temperature
and sliding velocity, the appropriate value was obtained following Schulson [20]
Parameters -10°C
Kc (MPaJm) 0.09
P 0.5
B (MPa~‘s~‘) 1.58 x IO-’ 4.12 x lo-*
g’I and that the length of the parent crack equals the
grain size, d, they showed that
22’3Z xK
(3)
b1f = [(7cd)“2{(l - R)(l -5, - 2&}]
where p is the friction coefficient of ice on ice, Z a
dimensionless parameter of order unity and the
confinement ratio, R, is as defined in equation (1).
The relationship implies no influence of the inter-
mediate principal stress, as observed (Fig. 4), but
direct dependence of the low-confinement strength on
(grain size)-“2, also in agreement with the obser-
vations (Fig. 5). Equation (3) implies further that ulf
increases with decreasing temperature, owing mainly
to the increase in p [33], and that the strength is quite
sensitive to confinement, in qualitative agreement
with the observations. The model is also in fair
quantitative agreement on these two points, as shown
in Fig. 3. [The theoretical curves in Fig. 3 were
calculated using the separately measured values of
K,, and p listed in Table 4. Z,t listed in Table 2, was
obtained from the K,, and p values, from the grain
size and from setting equation (3) to the uniaxial
failure strength at the three test temperatures.] Thus,
the frictional sliding/wing-crack mechanism accounts
reasonably well for the observed behavior under low
confinement.
This model seems to account for the low-confine-
ment failure stress whether the behavior is macro-
scopically brittle or ductile. This suggests that
microcracking is the primary deformation mode, even
when the material shows macroscopic ductile behav-
ior. In other words, the so-called “ductility” may not
really be plastic deformation. Instead, it may be
cataclastic flow. One point supporting this possibility
is the uniformly distributed microcracking (Section
3.3.1). The other point is the fact that the differential
“ductile” failure stress [open symbols, Fig. 3(a, b)]
appears not to be constant, as would be expected if
dislocation slip were dominant, but to increase as the
confining stress increases. The only caveat on the
latter point is the rather small number of measure-
ments and the possibility that the apparent trend in
the data is just scatter.
?A value Z = 0.8 at -4O”C, similar to that listed in Table
2, was obtained by setting the constant, k, in equation
(2), to the coefficient of &“* in equation (3) for R = 0
and using again the measured values of K,= and p.
OF GRANULAR ICE 2311
Temperature
- 20°C - 40°C Reference
0.1 0.11 [391
0.55 0.75 t331
1.98 x 10m9 1381
The above analysis is limited to the range
0 < R < R,,c where &c is the confinement ratio at
which the net shear stress on the sliding crack is
reduced to zero. From Schulson et al. [14] R,,, is
given by
R =(1-P)
Oc (1 +P)’
Threshold ratios calculated from this expression,
using measured values of p, are in fair agreement with
the experimental (&) data, Table 2. That the agree-
ment on this point is as good as it reflects to some
extent the fact that R,, represents an asymptotic limit
of equation (3), where glf tends to infinity, Fig. 10.
The actual limit occurs for R slightly less than Rot,
for it is at this slightly lower level of confinement that
the high-confinement failure mechanism is activated.
4.2. Brittle-ductile transition (B,/D)
Consider next the brittle-ductile transition which
occurs upon increasing the confinement while still
within the regime of low confinements (R < R,). As
already noted, the “ductility” may be primarily the
result of cataclastic flow, not the result of extensive
plastic flow or creep deformation. As R increases and
the confinement further impedes the growth of
cracks, new cracks continue to nucleate, leading to a
level of uniformly distributed damage [Fig. 8(d)]
sufficient to permit this kind of flow, as already noted.
One might then suppose that the B,/D transition
occurs when the confinement is high enough to
prevent the wing-cracks from exceeding a critical
length, in which case the transition ratio, R,,,,,,
i
Rot R
Fig. 10. Schematic graph of brittle compressive failure stress
of granular ice vs confinement. Note the competition be-
tween a frictional mechanism (denoted 1) and a confinement
independent mechanism (denoted 2). R, is the theoretical
stress ratio where frictional sliding is completely suppressed.
2312 WEISS and SCHULSON:
would be expected to be equal to a fraction of R,.
Consequently, RBlio would be expected to increase
with increasing temperature (see Table 2). However,
the opposite effect is observed: RB,,D decreases with
increasing temperature (see Fig. 2). Thus, it would
not be correct to simply apply the model presented
above, which is essentially an elastic model, to de-
scribe the B,/D transition, even though the model
describes the B,/B2 and the D/B2 transitions which
occur around R = &. Something else must be
added.
The new element is creep deformation localized at
the tips of the cracks. This process relaxes the local-
ized tensile stresses and, thus, like the far-field confi-
ning stress, helps to impede wing-crack growth. A
first model in which localized creep competes with
crack growth was proposed by Schulson [20] to
describe the ductile-brittle transition which occurs
under uniaxial compression as the strain rate in-
creases. A modification of this model for triaxial
compression is given in the Appendix. Accordingly,
the transition ratio, R,,,,, may be expressed by the
relationship
JK+-(*)
R B,/D = (5)
P+Jm
where B is a constant in the power law for the
secondary creep rate, ic = Bu”, and f is the ratio of
the radius, rC, of the creep zone (see Appendix) to the
half-length, a, of the sliding crack.
This relationship predicts that RBI,Ddecreases with
decreasing grain size, in qualitative agreement with
the observations at -40°C (Section 3.1). Its depen-
dence on temperature is less direct because K,, , p and
B all depend upon temperature. However, for the
measured values of those parameters listed in Table
4, and using f = 3 x 10m4 [obtained by setting
equation (5) equal to the observed value of
R B,,D= 0.05 at - 10°C for d = 7 mm] the predicted
and measured changes in the transition ratio with
decreasing temperature are in fair agreement, Table
5. Thus, by including crack tip creep as well as
confinement, the wing-crack mechanism appears to
account for the increase in the transition ratio R,,,,
with decreasing temperature.
It should be noted (from Table 5) that at -40°C
and d > 1 mm R,,,, is calculated to be larger than
R, implying that the high-confinement regime is
expected to occur before the B,/D transition, as
Table 5. Comparison of experimental
brittltiuctile transition confinement ratio, R..,,,
-10°C
Parameters (d=7mm)
Experiment 0.05
Model 0.05
FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE
observed. For d = 1 mm the predicted transition ratio
is 0.1, in agreement with experiment. It should also
be noted that at -20°C and d = 7 mm, the predicted
ratio is larger than the experimental ratio (Table 5)
reflecting perhaps uncertainties in p, B and K,,-, and
hence in the calculation, as well as imprecision in
specifying the transition point from the data.
That this model seems to work should not be taken
as proof that it is correct. Like its predecessor [20], it
contains a number of assumptions not all of which
are justified. For instance, the transition criterion [see
Appendix, equation (Al)] was chosen somewhat arbi-
trarily and the physical significance of f remains
partly obscure. Also, in applying the model of Riedel
and Rice [34] to calculate the creep zone size, it was
assumed that crack interactions are not important.
Moreover, only secondary creep is invoked in calcu-
lating the creep zone [see Appendix, equation (A2)].
Nevertheless, the model is simple enough to be useful
and to provide at least an estimate of the transition
ratio.
4.3. High-confidence regime (R > R,)
Consider now the high-confinement regime where
the compressive strength is roughly independent of
confinement, where cracking within the bulk of the
ice, even under hydrostatic loading, occurs intergran-
ularly without wing extensions, and where intensive
damage on the faces of the samples precedes collapse
of the ice.
Some of these characteristics are surprising. For
instance, cracks theoretically can not nucleate in an
isotropic body loaded under hydrostatic pressure, yet
they form here, suggesting that the elastic anisotropy
on the scale of the grains is an important factor. Also,
a maximum on the stress-strain curve registered
under hydrostatic loading is rather unusual, yet one
is observed here. In this instance internal collapse, as
described by Wong et al. [35] for porous (8-20%)
sandstone, is an unlikely explanation because the
porosity of the ice was below 0.2%. But even if
internal collapse did occur, under strain-controlled
deformation the stress should have increased after the
collapse and risen beyond the former “peak stress”,
and this was not observed. To what extent these
characteristics are related to true mechanisms and to
the microstructure of the material, and to what extent
they are related to the boundary conditions are the
issues now to be considered. It was to this end that
the interrupted tests under hydrostatic loading at
-40°C were carried out, see Table 1.
and calculated [from equation (5)] values of the
Experimental conditions
- 20°C - 40°C -40°C
(d=7mm) (d=7mm) (d= 1 mm)
0.1 Always brittle 0.1
0.2 R 0,/D % 0.1
*always brittle
 WEISS and SCHULSON:
The tests showed that under high-rate loading
(i = lO-3 s-‘) internal, intergranular cracks form
within the bulk of the material rather early in the
loading history, and then increase in number density
as the load rises. Specifically they nucleate by the time
the stress reaches 11.5 MPa or about 40% of the
failure stress of ice of 7 mm grain size, Fig. 11, and
then continue to nucleate, but not propagate, as the
loading continues. In the coarsely grained ice, these
cracks can be seen directly by the unaided eye owing
to the reflection of light from their faces. That they
formed intergranularly was seen in thin-sections pre-
pared from the unloaded specimens, and that they
formed upon loading, and not upon unloading, was
ensured by unloading slowly, as discussed in Section
2.2. To our knowledge, this is the first time internal
microcracking under hydrostatic loading has been
reported for any non-porous material. While interest-
ing, the phenomenon does not account for the
collapse of the ice and so will not be considered
further in this paper. An analysis, however, has been
Fig. 1I. Photographs of microcracks in a test specimen after
interrupted test I, (Table 1, R = 1, T = -4O”C, slow un-
loading). (a) Shows internal microcracks visible by the
reflection of light from their faces. (b) Shows internal cracks
in a thin-section (scale is in mm).
FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE 2313
Fig. 12. Schematic sketch of the evolution of failure under
high-confinement: (a) edge damage; (b) surface damage; (c)
expulsion of crushed ice particles leading to a load imbal-
ance; and (d) faulting owing to load imbalance.
performed and suggests that the cracks originate
from shear deformation (i.e. grain boundary sliding)
resulting from the elastic anisotropy of the material
[36]; this will be published separately.
The interrupted tests showed also that the edges of
the specimens became damaged, even earlier in the
loading history (i.e. around 5% of the failure stress)
than the internal cracks first nucleated. This damage
increased and then, as the load increased to about
70% of the failure stress, spread lightly across the
faces of the specimens. Upon raising the load further
the surface damage intensified to the point that the
faces were pulverized. At this stage fragments of ice
were ejected from one of the interfaces and the load
dropped. Figure 12 sketches this progression.
The large axial faults or splits which characterize
the specimen which failed under high confinement
[Fig. 9(a)] form not under load as it reaches its limit,
but as the load falls. This process is not easy to
observe because all faces of the specimen are covered
by the platens, and so there are not direct obser-
vations to support this view. What does support it is
the observation that as the finely crushed ice is ejected
from one of the interfaces, the load acting on that
interface momentarily drops. (This drop is registered
on the data acquisition system as a force imbalance
along that loading direction.) The cube is then under
transient biaxial loading (i.e. until the actuator can
advance to take up the space created by the ejected
particles) with Q, = e2 as high as about 30 MPa (at
-40°C). Under this stress state, axial splitting occurs,
just as it does under biaxial loading, leading to a fault
whose plane was observed to be roughly perpendicu-
lar to the direction of the load imbalance.
Although interrupted tests were not performed
under other loading paths within the high-confine-
ment regime, it is likely that a similar scenario occurs,
judging from the crushed faces and the axial faults
of the failed specimens. Thus, it seems that as the
confinement becomes large enough to suppress wing-
crack growth, ice-platen interface crushing is
2314 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE
triggered through the propagation across the inter-
face of damage which first formed at the free edge of
the specimen. The details of this process are not clear,
although finite element modeling indicates significant
tensile stresses at the edges [37]. What is clear is that
the saturation in the compressive strength under
high-confinement is not a characteristic of ice per se.
It is a characteristic of the boundary conditions or,
more specifically, of the free edges of the specimens
and the attendant stress gradients.
5. CONCLUSIONS
From experiments on the compressive failure of
granular fresh-water ice triaxially loaded between
solid platens in a true multiaxial testing system at a
strain rate of low3 s-’ at temperatures from - 10 to
-4O”C, it is concluded that:
1. Below a threshold confinement, R = c3 /a, = R,,
which increases with increasing temperature, the fail-
ure is controlled by the nucleation, the propagation
and the interaction of wing-cracks. This frictional
mechanism leads to a sharp increase of the failure
stress with increasing confinement.
2. Within this low-confinement regime, a tran-
sition from macroscopic brittle to macroscopic duc-
tile behavior is observed at a transition ratio, R,,,,,,
which decreases with decreasing grain size and in-
creasing temperature. The ductile behavior may not
be the result of global, dislocation-based plasticity,
but of cataclastic flow of highly damaged material.
However, the B,/D transition can be explained in
terms of the competition between wing-crack propa-
gation and stress relaxation mechanisms which oper-
ate at the tips of the parent, sliding cracks. Localized
plastic deformation stops the growth of cracks,
thereby allowing the density of microcracks to in-
crease to the point that cataclastic flow is possible.
3. Above &, the confinement is high enough to
suppress the frictional mechanism and a level of stress
is reached at which the failure happens by a confine-
ment independent mechanism. The failure stress is
then constant, (I,.
4. Intergranular microcracks nucleate in the bulk
of the material under high confinement. However,
these microcracks are not responsible for the failure
under high confinement. Rather, the failure is a
consequence of the boundary conditions inherent in
the true triaxial testing system used. At a certain
critical stress, bcr dense damage occurs on the surface
of the specimen. The ice is crushed by the platens and
ice particles are suddenly ejected, leading to a force
imbalance along one of the loading axes and to the
immediate collapse of the material under “biaxial”
loading.
Acknowledgements-We would like to acknowledge Dou-
glas E. Jones and Gary A. Kuehn who, over the years, made
many of the measurements on which the paper is based, and
Eric T. Gratz for advice and assistance in performing other
measurements. One of us (J. Weiss) would also like to
acknowledge the support of the gouvernement de France for
a post-doctural fellowship. The work was sponsored by the
Office of Naval Research, grant No. N00014-92-J-1270 and
by the Army Research Office, grant No. DAAL03-90-G-
0141. The experiments were performed at Thayer School of
Engineering, Dartmouth College in the Ice Research Lab-
oratory, which is operated through the additional support
of Mobil, Exxon, U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Manage-
ment Service.
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 WEISS and SCHULSON: FAILURE OF GRANULAR ICE 2315

32. E. T. Gratz and E. M. Schulson, Ann. Glac. 19, 33 where E is the Young’s modulus, F and a parameters of
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(1987). and transgranular damage, without transgranular exten-
sions larger than the grain size [Fig. 8(d)]. Therefore, where
wing-cracks nucleate, the ratio, L, between their length, I,
and the parent crack half-length, a, is always less than unity.
The ratio L being small, the mode I stress intensity factor
APPENDIX at the tip of the emerging wing extensions is determined by
the shear of the parent crack. Accordingly [7]
Brittle-Ductile Transition (B,/D) _/;;;;
Following Schulson [20], we assume that the B, /D transition K ==[(l - R)m--(1 +R)p] (A4)
occurs when the radius, r,, of the creep zone (within which ’ JJ
the creep strain exceeds the elastic strain) equals a certain and
fraction, f, of the half-length, a, of the parent crack i.e.
aK, Jza
r, =f x a. (Al) z =$(l -R)&&(l + R)p]. (A5)

This kind of model was successfully applied to predict Taking F and a as unity and n = 3 [38], we obtain
transition strain-rates vs grain size of columnar fresh-water
ice under uniaxial compression across the columns [23]. 4BK;,
Here we modify the model to describe the transition confine- (A6)
” = .3’2&&[(l - R)m - (1 + R)p]’
ment ratio, R,,,,.
The creep zone size, r,, is evaluated from the model of Taking 2a = d, the grain size, (A6) becomes
Riedel and Rice [34]

(A7)