Embedded Ultrasonic Inspection on the Mechanical Properties of Cold Region Ice under Varying Temperatures

The mechanical properties of ice in cold regions are significantly affected by the variation in temperature. The existing methods to determine ice properties commonly rely on one-off and destructive compression and strength experiments, which are unable to acquire the varying properties of ice due to temperature variations. To this end, an embedded ultrasonic system is proposed to inspect the mechanical properties of ice in an online and real-time mode. With this system, ultrasonic experiments are conducted to testify to the validity of the system in continuously inspecting the mechanical properties of ice and, in particular, to verify its capabilities to obtain ice properties for various temperature conditions. As an extension of the experiment, an associated refined numerical model is elaborated by mimicking the number, size, and agglomeration of bubbles using a stochastic distribution. This system can continuously record the wave propagation velocity in the ice, giving rise to ice properties through the intrinsic mechanics relationship. In addition, this model facilitates having insights into the effect of properties, e.g., porosity, on ice properties. The proposed embedded ultrasonic system largely outperforms the existing methods to obtain ice properties, holding promise for developing online and real-time monitoring techniques to assess the ice condition closely related to structures in cold regions.