Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Bridge piers, lighthouses, and oil platforms, especially those in Arctic and subarctic areas, are exposed to harshenvironmental conditions such as ice abrasion and ice impact loading. Ice abrasion occurs when a drifting icesheet slides against the surface of the structure with high friction. On the other hand, drifting ice sheets oricebergs can create considerable dynamic impact loads on offshore structures. These impact loads can be evenmore damaging when borne by strong currents. Continuous ice abrasion and/or ice impact loading areconsidered one of the most dangerous deterioration of concrete structures. Unfortunately, there are still anumber of unknown factors related to design and material selection of concrete structures exposed to iceabrasion. Moreover, the information regarding the effect of ice impact loading on concrete structures is limitedin the literature. The main objective of this project is to investigate ice abrasion and impact resistance ofconcrete under arctic conditions. The project particularly aims to study the effects of actual Arcticenvironmental conditions on concrete in order to develop some novel concrete mixtures with high resistance toice abrasion and ice impact loading. The effects of mixture composition, mixture proportions, supplementarycementing materials, and the inclusion of crumb rubber/fibres on ice abrasion and impact loading will beclearly presented to help designers/engineers in designing and optimizing concrete mixtures in arcticconditions. Other considerations such as effects concrete curing and surface finishing techniques on theabrasion and impact resistance will also be part of this project. The outcome of this project will have asignificant potential to create new technology and subsequent opportunities for next generation of concretedesign guidelines for arctic conditions.