In cold region, the design ice load for offshore structures is often given by first-year ice ridges, it is important to obtain knowledge about ice ridge, especially consolidated parts, in designing offshore structures. However, the physical properties and strength of sea ice ridge appear to be much more complex than those of undeformed ice or level ice.
The authors conducted a preliminary series of tests (uniaxial compression tests) in the laboratory to investigate the strength and the physical properties of the consolidated part. In order to construct an ice ridge, cubic ice blocks of varies size (a) were place in the ice tank filled with salt water that had greater salinity than that of the ice blocks. After they were refrozen, using varies size core drill (d), we collected core test samples of varies sizes and various d/a ratio, due to combination (a) and (d). and then we examined its physical properties and its strength characteristics in considerations with the size effects.