A theoretical determination of the elastic constants of ice

Abstract

A simplified model of the ice crystal, equivalent to Barnes's, was used. By applying the symmetry operations of this model to the dynamical matrix, it was made to depend on six arbitrary constants. By assuming that the tetrahedra of oxygen atoms which form the lattice are regular, and hence applying a further symmetry transformation to a smaller unit of the crystal, the number of arbitrary constants was reduced to two. The elastic constants were then found in terms of these two atomic constants. Two of the experimental measurements of the elastic constants of polycrystalline (quasiamorphous) ice were used to calculate the atomic constants and hence the elastic constants for single crystals.