Experimental observations of the flexural failure process of snow covered ice

•A snow cover with three layers was artificially generated on ice sheet.•Model tests for flexural failure on a cone were performed.•Test techniques and the experimental results were provided.•Analyses of model tests of snow covered ice on cones were performed.

To investigate the flexural failure process of ice sheet under the influence of snow cover, a series of model tests were performed in the ice tank at the Ice Engineering Laboratory of Tianjin University. A snow cover with three layers was artificially generated on the model ice sheet. The basal layer is coarse-grained snow ice, on which a layer is of dense and close-grained depth hoar, and the top layer is new snow. Three model cones with different cone angles (50°, 55° and 60°) were used during the tests. The ice load on model cone, the ice piece size and rubble pile profile were measured during the tests. Different ice failure modes and rubble pile developing processes were observed for different tests conditions. The observations indicate that the presence of snow cover changes the flexural failure of ice into different manners.