Abstract
Ice as a construction material has a number of advantages in Arctics. It is local renewable ecologically safe resource, and it does not require supplying from mainland. However, mechanical characteristics of natural ice is rather low. Potential of known techniques of ice strengthening employing reinforcement by microfibers or macroscopic components is limited. The paper describes strengthening of ice matrix using nanodisperce silica particles. Sixfold reduction of grain size induced by adding 10% wt of SiO2 nanoparticles results in 2.5 times increase in strength limit in uniaxial compression test and more than an order of magnitude increase in fracture energy.
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