An investigation of the effects of particles on creep of polycrystalline ice

The effects of particles on the creep of polycrystalline ice have been studied at temperatures from −20 °C to −2 °C. It has been shown that particles do not affect the creep stress exponent. Both particle-free ice and particle-containing ice show n = 3 power-law behavior. Calculation indicates that activation energies are ∼70 kJ mol−1 for both particle-free ice and particle-containing ice from −20 °C to −10 °C. However, the activation energy increases to ∼120 kJ mol−1 for particle-free ice when the temperature is above −10 °C due to grain boundary sliding, which is inhibited in the particle-containing ice.