Analysis of the joint application results of a borehole jack and thermal drilling in ice research

Abstract

In last two decade, studies of ice ridge morphometry and strength properties have been actively carried out. Thermal drilling of ice and experiments to determine the local strength of ice using a borehole jack are performed. The paper discusses the issues of joint use of thermal drilling equipment and borehole jack for the ice cover research. Two approaches to the comparison of the results obtained by these two methods are considered. Average penetration rate versus local ice strength dependences are presented. With increasing ice strength and decreasing penetration rate the interval of changes in the ice strength increases and correspondence of the strength to the penetration rate decreases. Based on the results of ice ridges research, depth-wise distributions of local strength and thermal drill penetration rate are compared. Difference between the average thicknesses of the consolidated layer obtained from these distributions was 5 %.