Surreal illustration of an icy landscape representing the complexity of an ice material model.

Decoding Ice: How Scientists Are Modeling Its Strength Under Pressure

Nico Varela in Science & Nature June 2025 • 4 min read.

"New research unveils a comprehensive model for understanding ice behavior under extreme conditions, crucial for Arctic exploration and structural safety."

The Arctic, once a remote frontier, is now a focal point for global exploration and resource extraction. As sea routes open and offshore ventures expand, understanding the fundamental properties of ice becomes paramount. The interaction between ice and ships or marine structures poses significant engineering challenges, necessitating accurate predictive models of ice behavior.

For decades, scientists have grappled with the complexities of ice, a material whose strength and deformation characteristics are notoriously difficult to predict. Unlike steel or concrete, ice responds dramatically to changes in temperature, pressure, and the rate at which it is stressed. This sensitivity demands sophisticated models that account for these variables to ensure the safety and reliability of Arctic operations.

Recent research published in Ships and Offshore Structures introduces a novel ice material model designed to do just that. This model aims to capture the intricate interplay of strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure, offering a more realistic representation of ice behavior under the extreme conditions encountered in the Arctic and other cold regions.

What Factors Influence Ice Strength? Unveiling the Model's Components

Surreal illustration of an icy landscape representing the complexity of an ice material model.

The newly developed ice material model is built upon the fundamental principle that ice deformation can be categorized into recoverable and unrecoverable components. The recoverable portion is represented by elastic and delayed elastic models, while the unrecoverable deformation is modeled with a viscous model. This viscous model links stress to strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure, capturing how these factors influence ice's resistance to deformation.

To create a comprehensive, three-dimensional representation, the model decomposes stress and strain into deviatoric and volumetric components. The deviatoric components relate to the shape change of the ice, while the volumetric component reflects changes in volume due to pressure. This approach allows the model to account for the influence of confining pressure on ice strength, a critical consideration in many real-world scenarios.

Isotropy: Assumes the ice material has uniform properties in all directions.
Deviatoric Behavior: Models shape changes using viscous, elastic, and delayed elastic laws.
Temperature Influence: Incorporates temperature effects on viscous and delayed elastic behaviors.
Volumetric Behavior: Represents volume changes using the elastic model, accounting for how hydrostatic stress affects deviatoric behavior.

Elastic deformation includes deviatoric and volumetric elements. For isotropic ice, the constitutive link is defined using a generalized Hooke’s law, where shear and bulk moduli are derived from elastic modulus—approximately 10 MPa for freshwater ice. The model considers how viscous forces relate to strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure, using Newton’s law to show how stress impacts strain rate. Ice shifts from ductile to brittle as strain rate increases, a key aspect highlighted in constant strain rate experiments.

Implications for Arctic Engineering and Beyond

This improved understanding of ice mechanics is crucial for a wide range of applications, from designing safer ships and offshore platforms to predicting the stability of ice sheets and glaciers. As the Arctic continues to open up to development, models like this will play an increasingly important role in ensuring the safety and sustainability of human activities in this challenging environment.

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Everything You Need To Know

What specific factors does the new ice material model consider to predict ice behavior?

The new ice material model considers strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure. It integrates these factors to provide a more realistic representation of how ice behaves under the extreme conditions found in environments like the Arctic. This is achieved by breaking down ice deformation into recoverable and unrecoverable components. The recoverable portion includes elastic and delayed elastic models, while the unrecoverable deformation is modeled using a viscous model. This model then links stress to strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of ice's response under pressure, temperature variations, and different loading speeds (strain rates).

How does the model account for the influence of confining pressure on ice strength?

The model uses a three-dimensional approach, decomposing stress and strain into deviatoric and volumetric components. The deviatoric components describe shape changes, while the volumetric component reflects volume changes due to pressure. This allows the model to account for the influence of confining pressure on ice strength. The volumetric behavior is represented using an elastic model, further enabling the assessment of how hydrostatic stress affects deviatoric behavior, which is particularly critical in environments where ice is under significant pressure, such as deep water or when ice interacts with structures.

What are the key components of ice deformation as described by the ice material model?

The model categorizes ice deformation into recoverable and unrecoverable components. Recoverable deformation is modeled by elastic and delayed elastic models, representing the ice's ability to return to its original shape after stress is removed (at least partially). Unrecoverable deformation is modeled using a viscous model, which links stress to strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure. This viscous model captures the permanent deformation of ice under stress, explaining how ice flows or deforms over time under various conditions.

How does the model's approach to isotropy and elastic deformation contribute to understanding ice behavior?

The model assumes isotropy, meaning the ice material has uniform properties in all directions. This simplifies the analysis while still providing valuable insights. Elastic deformation, which includes both deviatoric and volumetric elements, is defined using a generalized Hooke’s law. This law, in turn, uses shear and bulk moduli, derived from the elastic modulus (approximately 10 MPa for freshwater ice), to describe the ice's response to stress. This allows the model to predict how ice behaves under different stresses and pressures, considering its ability to deform and return to its original shape within certain limits.

Why is this ice material model important for Arctic exploration and structural safety?

The model is crucial for several reasons related to Arctic exploration and structural safety. As the Arctic becomes a focal point for global exploration and resource extraction, understanding ice behavior is paramount. The model helps in designing safer ships and offshore platforms by predicting how ice will interact with these structures under various conditions of strain rate, temperature, and confining pressure. By improving predictions of ice behavior, the model contributes to the safety and sustainability of human activities in challenging environments, ensuring that engineering designs can withstand the extreme forces and conditions of the Arctic.