The increased activity in cold regions has made a thorough understanding of fracture in lake and sea ice quite desirable, inasmuch as this information has application to a number of problems of geophysical as well as engineering importance. This survey starts with a discussion of the structure of ice I and the macro- and microstructure of sea and lake ice as well as their chemistry and phase relations. Recent work on the direct observation of dislocations as well as the formation of cracks in ice is summarized. Formal ice-brine-air models for analyzing variations in ice strength are also reviewed. The results of the different types of tests are discussed and compared (compressive, indentation, direct and ring-tension, small beam flexure and in situ cantilevers and simple beams, shear, and impact). Scale effects are considered as well as the rapid strength deterioration experienced by ice sheets in the spring. Finally, a number of recommendations are made concerning future research in this field. (Author).

Fracture: An Advanced Treatise, Volume VII: Fracture of Nonmetals and Composites examines the fracture of nonmetals and composites. The text of this treatise has been designed so that the reader may acquire pertinent information by self-study. Most chapters have been written in detail and, insofar as possible, have been made to fill a significant gap by also providing, when appropriate, the details of complicated and involved mathematical derivations in appendixes. Whenever possible, only a level of college calculus on the part of the reader has been assumed. Numerical examples showing the engineering applications have been included; also, photographs and drawings have been greatly utilized. The book opens with a review of the fracture behavior of glass. This is followed by separate chapters on the fracture of polymeric glasses; mechanics of the fracture process in rock, with emphasis on the engineering viewpoint; the fracture behavior of simple, single-phase ceramics; and empirical information about, and our level of understanding of, fracture in polycrystalline ceramics. Subsequent chapters deal with the fracture of elastomers; molecular mechanical aspects of the isothermal rupture of elastomers; failure mechanics of fibrous composites; fracture mechanics of composites; fracture and healing of compact bones; and fracture of two-phase alloys; and fracture of lake ice and sea ice.

Covering more than seven percent of the earth’s surface, sea ice is crucial to the functioning of the biosphere—and is a key component in our attempts to understand and combat climate change. With On Sea Ice, geophysicist W. F. Weeks delivers a natural history of sea ice, a fully comprehensive and up-to-date account of our knowledge of its creation, change, and function. The volume begins with the earliest recorded observations of sea ice, from 350 BC, but the majority of its information is drawn from the period after 1950, when detailed study of sea ice became widespread. Weeks delves into both micro-level characteristics—internal structure, component properties, and phase relations—and the macro-level nature of sea ice, such as salinity, growth, and decay. He also explains the mechanics of ice pack drift and the recently observed changes in ice extent and thickness. An unparalleled account of a natural phenomenon that will be of increasing importance as the earth’s temperature rises, On Sea Ice will unquestionably be the standard for years to come.

This Volume constitutes the Proceedings of the IUTAM Symposium on 'Scaling Laws in Ice Mechanics and Ice Dynamics', held in Fairbanks, Alaska from 13th to 16th of June 2000. Ice mechanics deals with essentially intact ice: in this discipline, descriptions of the motion and deformation of Arctic/ Antarctic and river/lake ice call for the development of physically based constitutive and fracture models over an enormous range in scale: 0.01 m - 10 km. Ice dynamics, on the other hand, deals with the movement of broken ice: descriptions of an aggregate of ice floes call for accurate modeling of momentum transfer through the sea/ice system, again over an enormous range in scale: 1 km (floe scale) - 500 km (basin scale). For ice mechanics, the emphasis on lab-scale (0.01 - 0.5 m) research con trasts with applications at the scale of order 1 km (ice-structure interaction, icebreaking); many important upscaling questions remain to be explored.