Reinforced Ice and Ice Domes: Opportunities for the North*

Abstract

It is suggested that reinforced ice domes in spans up to 100–150 metres and constructed by spraying water onto a spherical inflatable membrane could be economic solutions for constructing temporary enclosures in cold regions. The feasibility and practicability of such a novel and economical erection/construction technique has been demonstrated at The University of Calgary by constructing small-scale model ice domes and testing them until failure. Details of this erection technique, properties of the reinforcement (spun fibreglass yarn) and the load-deflection-time behaviour of the model domes are described. The first part of the paper gives some results on the short-duration load and creep response of unreinforced and reinforced ice samples, including shear. pull-out/bond and tensile strength. The results indicate that such fibreglass yarn reinforcement does not enhance the shear strength of ice but does inhibit initiation and propagation of cracking and thereby increase the ultimate tensile strength of the composite.