Experimental and Numerical Studies of the Plastic Behavior of Large Structural Grillages Subjected to Ice Loads

Significant research efforts have been carried out to investigate the plastic behavior of grillage structures. However, most experimental work has used steel or other rigid indenters rather than real ice. The tests therefore showed certain structural response behavior that may occur differently if subjected to ice loads. In this study, ice samples were used to load the structure rather than rigid indenters. This allowed for investigation into structural deformation considering the failure of ice. Two large grillages were prepared and tested. The first grillage tests were intended to study the ultimate load-carrying capacity when subjected to central and symmetric loading. The second grillage was tested to study the influence of variable ice loading positions along a single frame. A finite element (FE) model was developed to analyze the experiments numerically. The load-deflection curves and deformation shapes measured by the MicroScribe^® were used to validate the numerical results.