Effect of vibration on the elastic modulus of compacted Antarctic snow near Zhongshan Station

Abstract. As one of the fundamental mechanical properties of snow, the elastic modulus is critical to the design and construction of Antarctic snow runways and roads. While previous studies measured and investigated snow’s elastic modulus through various experimental methods, the effects of vibratory treatment, a construction measure proven to enhance snow hardness, on the elastic modulus and the underlying mesoscale mechanism remain unexamined. This study investigates the vibration-induced effect on elastic modulus of compacted Antarctic snow near Zhongshan Station and the corresponding mesoscale mechanism. P-wave propagation experiments were conducted to measure the elastic modulus of vibrated and non-vibrated compacted Antarctic snow, and X-ray tomography imaging was employed to obtain the microstructures of vibrated and non-vibrated snow samples. Results show that for isothermal sintering of 48 hours at -10 °C, vibratory treatment increases the elastic modulus by 83.13 % while maintaining the snow density of 0.6 g/cm³ unchanged. At the mesoscale, vibratory treatment effectively homogenizes the pore space distribution within the ice matrix. Quantitative analysis revealed the following microstructural modifications: a 7.14 % decrease in the mean structure thickness accompanied by a 12.41 % reduction in the standard deviation, a 13.68 % decrease in the mean pore thickness with a more pronounced 30.43 % decline in the standard deviation, an 18.82 % elevation in the minimum cut density, and a 2.09 % enhancement in the directional connectivity. The findings provide theoretical support for rapid construction techniques of Antarctic snow runways and roads.