Behavior of Ice Covers Under Moving Loads – the Driving Mechanism

Measurements of the response of a floating ice cover to a loaded vehicle travelling at various speeds indicate that the “deflection bowl” created under the weight of the vehicle behaves like a vessel which is carrying the vehicle over the water surface. Because the ice cover is flexible, the bowl changes shape as the forces acting on it change with speed. Results show that: 1) as vehicle speed increases towards “critical speed” the depth of the bowl increases from the effect of the Bernoulli principle; 2) the depth of the bowl diminishes above critical speed from dynamic lift; 3) critical speed is sensitive to water depth – which is predicted by the Bernoulli principle.