APPENDIX B: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES OF SNOW WITH COMPILATION OF DATA
al. (1958). It is of interest that the numerical val-
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
ues for properties determined by Yosida et al.
In this appendix we use published reviews of
(1956) and some of those from Jellenick (1957)
the field of snow mechanics to trace the develop-
were the only new data for mechanical properties
ment of data on the mechanical properties of snow.
of nonpolar snow included in Bader (1962a) that
Following the discussion, the data are given in a
had appeared in the literature since the publica-
series of figures which have been updated from
tion of Mantis (1951).
Mellor (1975, 1977).
Two years later, Mellor published his first re-
The first attempt at a comprehensive review of
view of the mechanical properties of snow (Mellor
the mechanical properties of ice and snow in En-
1964) as part of the snow engineering section of
glish was presented in SIPRE Technical Report 4
the CRREL monograph series. In it, Mellor col-
(Mantis 1951). The only data given in that report
lected and organized data on seasonal, polar and
were 1) the values of a static Young's modulus for
various types of processed snow, but the only
snow from Yosida et al. (1948), 2) the snow vis-
work on seasonal snow reported by Mellor (1964)
cosities from Bucher (1948), 3) some values for
and not by Bader (1962a) was from Yosida (1963).
friction, and 4) a few tensile and shear strength
There were, however, several contributions on
magnitudes. There was also mention of unsuc-
the properties of polar and processed snows
cessful attempts by Corps of Engineers personnel
(Butkovich 1962; Bender 1957a; Brunke 1959; Lee
to determine some of the mechanical properties
1961; Nakaya 1959b, 1961; Ramseier 1963;
of snow by dynamic methods, although no de-
Ramseier and Pavlak 1964; Mellor and Hendrick-
tails or references were given. SIPRE Technical
son 1965).
Report 7 (Bader et al. 1951) included the same
The most comprehensive review of the litera-
values of the tensile and shear strengths of snow
ture on mechanical properties of snow was done
as in Mantis (1951) but also reported the first
by Mellor (1975), supplemented by additional data
values of the cross section number "m" (the recip-
in Mellor (1977). Aside from the results from Abele
rocal of Poisson's ratio). There was an obvious
and Gow (1975, 1976) on the relationship between
lack of quantitative information on the mechani-
density and maximum principal stress, the new-
cal properties of snow available when these re-
est reported data on the mechanical properties or
ports were prepared. However, there was enough
strength of snow in either review paper was that
information on the qualitative aspects of the be-
by Kovacs et al. (1969). In addition, the only data
havior of snow during deformation that it was
on seasonal snow that had not appeared in the
possible to outline a broad experimental program,
earlier reviews were some values of Young's
including the design of testing equipment, to ac-
modulus from Kojima (1954) that had been over-
quire additional data (Bader et al. 1951).
looked earlier but had appeared in Yosida et al.
The next review and summary of the data on
(1956), and the results of creep tests in torsion,
snow mechanics was published by Bader (1962a).
uniaxial tension and uniaxial compression by
His primary objective was to describe the general
Shinojima (1967).
behavior of snow as a material but he also pre-
Figures from Mellor (1975, 1977) are still the
sented data on mechanical properties from static
most comprehensive sources of data on the me-
tests by Butkovich (1956) and Jellenik (1957), and
chanical properties of snow. Some of these are
from dynamic tests on polar snow by Nakaya
presented later in this appendix with supplemen-
(1959a). In addition, Bader (1962a) discussed the
tal data added where possible.
insights to understanding the processes of snow
The most recent review of the field of snow
deformation contributed by the creep experiments
mechanics was done by Salm (1982). However, it
under uniaxial and multiaxial stresses by
was devoted mainly to describing progress in
Landauer (1955, 1957), and the plate indentation
understanding the mechanics of fracture of snow
tests by Landauer and Royse (1956) and Yosida et
and in the development of constitutive relation-
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