STABILIZATION OF A SEA-ICE TRANSITION BY FREEZING: MCMURDO STATION, ANTARCTICA
Joseph L. Barthelemy, Amphibious Systems Division, Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center,, Port Hueneme, California USA
ABSTRACT
The United States Antarctic Program uses a seasonal seaice runway at McMurdo Station to support heavy-haul, wheeled aircraft during the short resupply season. Typically, air operations are diverted to a subordinate skiway around mid-December when the strength and integrity of the ice runway are compromised During the past several seasons, however, deterioration of the strategic transition that links the ice road to the snow road on the Ross Ice Shelf has forced premature closure of the seasonal runway. The presence of melt pockets and wet ice uncovered during repeated excavation of the transition area has prompted this study.
The Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center has been tasked to consider the feasibility of consolidating and thickening subsurface ice within the transition zone using a self-powered heat transfer device known as the freezing cell Freezing cells are passive, one-way heat exchangers that combine conduction and convection heat transfer to "short circuit" the insulating properties of an ice s heet, thereby accelerating the rate of growth and freezeback on the underside. Numerical calculations computed to explore the type and spacing of freezing cell are presented It would appear an ambitous undertaking to pepper the entire transition roadway with these devices, an area that may cover 30 m by 15 m, or more. An alternate application worthy of consideration is to reinforce just strategic strips of roadway - strips spaced, for example, to the gauge of a LGP D-8 bulldozer track or trailing cargo sled runner
