THE CREEP OF ICE IN BENDING

Abstract

Observations were made on the creep behavior of columnar ice beams of different thicknesses subjected to repeated and reversed loading. More than half of the beams tested showed unusual creep behavior. During transient creep the strain rate increased to a maximum value and decreased only thereafter. It was established that this behavior was not a permanent property of ice. On reloading, the same beams exhibited normal creep behavior. For the conditions of the experiments, the deflection was very sensitive to the thickness of the beams. It was found that the neutral axis was located at the center of the beam when the maximum strain was less than 1%.