The Effect of Anisotropy on the Creep of Polycrystalline Ice

Abstract

Quantitative effects of crystallographic orientation fabrics are incorporated into the flow law for isotropic polycrystalline ice by the introduction of an enhancement factor applied to the isotropic fluidity. An aggregate is viewed to a first approximation as a collection of grains deforming independently by basal glide. The influence of preferred orientations on the mean intragranular rate of strain is treated in terms of a redistribution of the magnitude and orientation of resolved basal shear stress. A quantitative measure of this effect on the fluidity of the aggregate is provided through the development of a geometric tensor and a stress configuration parameter. Intergranular interference is then considered as a dissipative process modifying the fluidity of the aggregate. Empirical justification for the model at low octahedral shear stresses is provided by several laboratory creep tests on naturally anisotropic bore-hole specimens under both in situ and anomalous stress situations. Predicted enhancement factors ranged from approximately 0.2 to 2.8 and agree well with measured values. The tests were carried out in uniaxial compression and simple shear.