A new material for modelling ice in glancing impact tests at room temperature

In glancing impact tests, the mechanical properties of water-exposed model ice at the ship-ice interaction points should be consistent and not change at the testing temperature. This study introduces a novel material for constructing laboratory-scale ice specimens for glancing impact tests, created by blending beeswax and rapeseed oil. This combination results in ice specimens with adequate scaled-down compressive strength at room temperature, an ideal material for representing ice in glancing impact tests in model scale. The compressive strength of this combination can be adjusted by varying the mass ratio between beeswax and rapeseed oil. A series of uniaxial compression tests were conducted to determine the compressive strength of combinations with different mass ratios. The results of these tests reveal that the stress-displacement curve using this material may closely resemble that of the model ice presently utilized in the Aalto Ice and Wave Tank up to the yielding point. After the yielding point, the combination shows ductile behavior deviating from the more brittle failure of the model ice. Furthermore, the findings indicate that an increase in oil content leads to a reduction in compressive strength, while exposure to surrounding water does not significantly affect this property.