Research of the limiting state of ice cover under conditions of pure bending with reinforcement by reinforcing elements

The aim of the paper was an experimental and numerical investigation of the stress-strain state of the ice samples strengthened by surface reinforcement. The ice samples were reinforced with the welded reinforcing cages in a series of experiments performed in the winter of 2015/2016. The reinforcing steel A400 was used in the experimental study. A multifunctional loading unit was developed and assembled for the model experiments to be carried out. The unit consisted of a power frame, loading device, and measuring module. The results of experiments on the loading of the samples were compared with those obtained numerically using the ANSYS software suite. The samples were loaded under conditions of pure bending. The resulting loaddeflection diagrams showed a high convergence when comparing experimental data to numerical results for a specified reinforcement scheme with steel A400. The simulation of ice beams and the corresponding calculations were performed by the ANSYS software. The beam samples were reinforced with various composite materials in accordance with a given scheme of reinforcement. The load-deflection diagrams for the ice samples reinforced with steel were compared with those for the samples reinforced with considered composite materials. The stress-strain state of the samples was determined at each loading step. The numerical calculations were performed on the basis of a nonlinear deformation model with account for appearance of the cracks in the samples. The authors assessed an increase in the load-bearing capacity of ice when using different composite materials, and analyzed their effect on the stress-strain state of the ice samples at various loading steps. The numerical model efficiency was tested using the ANSYS software suite at the specified physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials.