Stress-Strain Relations in Snow under Uniaxial Compression

Abstract

Two types of tests were performed on the uniaxial compression of snow; experiments at constant strain rate and at constant load. The strain rate can be represented as the product of functions of density, stress, temperature, and time. For densities between γ≃0.3 g/cc and γ≃0.6 g/cc the strain rate is proportional to (γice−γ)/γ to the fourth power. The strain rate varies linearly with stress for low stresses (2<σ<100 g/cm2) but increases to an approximately cubic relationship at higher stresses (1<σ<5 kg/cm2). An activation energy of about 14 000 cal/mole can be derived from the temperature dependence. In the constant load tests the strain is proportional to the time to a power of about 0.8. The effect of snow type is small, being less than the relatively large experimental scatter encountered.