Journal of Cold Regions Engineering

This paper reviews and summarizes the results of the research and development efforts in river ice engineering conducted at the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory over the past decade and their applications to the Civil Works mission of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Topics covered include winter operation of navigation projects on the major northern U.S. waterways; river ice processes, namely ice transport and accumulation; ice jam documentation, prediction, and mitigation; and bed and bank erosion due to ice. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of future challenges and areas of needed research in river ice engineering.

A field study was performed at two regional airports in Wisconsin during spring thaw to determine its effects on portland cement concrete (PCC) airport pavements. This study was part of a research program to model the performance of airfield pavements for the Federal Aviation Administration. Subsurface temperature and falling weight deflection measurements of the pavement structures were taken at both airports and used to calculate the frost penetration depths, the changes in bearing capacity, and the joint and load transfer efficiencies. This paper summarizes the findings of this study and includes several relationships between various engineering properties of the subsurface layers below the PCC layer, along with a procedure for evaluating pavement performance using falling weight deflection data for PCC pavements during spring thaw.

Brash ice commonly covers ice-covered navigation channels in rivers, waterways, and harbors. Barges, therefore, frequently encounter it. This paper presents ice-tank observations and data indicating the levels of resistance likely to be encountered by barges pushed through brash-ice-covered channels or moored in channels through which brash ice moves. The ice-tank data are compared with a set of full-scale data obtained with barges moving through ice-covered channels in the Mississippi River.