| 12 May 2026
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.
General comments:
This study reports on measurements of compressional wave modulus, i.e., M modulus, and microstructural statistics for sieved snow obtained in Antarctica. This is motivated by a need to understand the elastic properties of processed snow for the construction of snow roads and aircraft runways in polar regions. In particular, the authors are interested in differences for snow samples prepared by artificial compaction or by a combination of artificial compaction and vibratory treatment. Significant differences are shown in the compressional wave modulus between snow samples with and without vibration treatment; the M modulus increasing for the vibrated samples. In connection with these differences it is shown that the pore space becomes increasingly more homogenous, the ice bonds have less variations in dimensions, and the connectivity of the ice matrix becomes more uniform. These observations support a long-held hypothesis that vibration introduces a more favorable arrangement of ice grains for supporting larger elastic deformations. While the study presents important observations that test this hypothesis there are significant technical omissions that reduce confidence in the reported results, the study is extremely narrow in the tested parameter range, procedural flaws are present, and much of the reported material is simply a repetition of recent studies published by this research group, e.g., Xiao et al. (2026a, 2026b, 2026c).
Specific comments:
1. Abstract, Line 366: The abstract and concluding sentence states "findings provide theoretical support for rapid construction techniques of Antarctic snow runways and roads". The nature of this paper is entirely empirical with no theoretical treatment of the problem at hand. Please accurately state the nature of the findings.
2. Lines 72, 76, 77, 311, 312: Reference is made to Abele (1990), on Line 72, and then later, on Lines 76 and 77, the authors state that "the effects of vibratory treatment on the elastic modulus of compacted Antarctic snow and the corresponding mesoscale mechanisms have rarely been studied." In the work by Abele (1990), on page 64 of the report, the followed is stated: "It is possible that the vibratory action causes some favorable rearranging of the snow grains and better grain-to-grain contact, thus producing a snow grain matrix that is more conducive to the age-hardening process not fully represented by the density of the snow mass." This represents a key hypothesis formulated by Abele, however, nowhere in this article is this fact acknowledged. Instead, the authors basically state Abele's hypothesis as their own on Lines 311 and 312. This represents a form of intentional plagiarism, since the authors are fully aware of Abele's 1990 report.
3. Lines 91, 92: Since compaction was carried out by "manually striking a punch with a hammer" it can be expected that the strain rate was substantially high leading to quasi-brittle deformation (Barraclough et al., 2017). As a consequence, density variations throughout the sample can be expected to vary with height. The result is that identical bulk densities no longer serves as an appropriate measure that characterizes each snow sample. Fundamentally, this procedure leads to variations in measured properties that are unable to be accounted for in a rigorous fashion.
4. Line 114: "...consistent with ranges established in previous engineering applications." No citation is given for this claim. Abele (1990) reports on ranges from 380 to 4000 revolutions per minute (rpm) in vibration frequencies and contact pressures in the range of three to 14 kPa. Furthermore, Shoop et al. (2014) report on a snow paving system that possesses a contact pressure of 20 kPa. The chosen vibration frequency in this study is 4000 rpm, which is at the top end of the range reported in past work. Also, the applied stress in this study, 38 to 42 kPa, is about two-fold greater than what has been used in practice. Possibly, other ranges of vibration frequency and contact pressure were used in Russian snow paving systems; see references within chapter 2 of Talalay (2024). Based on the available information, choices for these experimental parameters cast much doubt on the practical relevance of this study.
5. Line 119: Separate samples were prepared for compressional phase speed and micro-computed X-ray (uCT) tomography measurements. This appears to be a major methodical flaw as it introduces unaccounted variations between groups of samples, one measured for elastic properties and the other measured for microstructural properties. In other words, a direct link between the microstructural properties and elastic properties is missing. It would seem more appropriate, after conducting phase speed measurements, followed by casting and freezing, to simply cut the large samples and then conduct uCT measurements.
6. Figure 1: A clear rationale for the choice of vibratory frequency, duration, and load is lacking. Furthermore, was the strain-rate of compaction estimated? As pointed out, high strain-rates lead to quasi-brittle deformation, as opposed to quasi-plastic deformation, which results in compaction banding (Barraclough et al., 2017). Consequentially, variations in density can be expected along the height of the sample.
7. Line 168: The dimensions of the "cubic region", for uCT measurements, are not given. Furthermore, there is no indication that the sample region is a satisfactory representative elementary volume (REV). This is typically checked by examining the sensitivity of the calculated porosity as a function of the REV size, e.g., see Viet Dung et al. (2019).
8. Line 244: According to compressional wave phase speed measurements by Smith (1965), for a snow density of 600 kg/m^3, the measured phase speed was 2518 m/s leading to a compressional wave modulus of 3.8 GPa. This exceeds the upper whisker of the "control group" and falls between the first and second quantiles of the "experimental group". Smith's measurements were with natural Greenland snow versus processed snow in this study. Please comment.
9. Lines 251, 252: "...control group samples contain fewer, larger, and unevenly distributed pores, whereas vibrated samples show smaller pores with uniform spatial distribution." This seems to confirm Abele's (1990) original hypothesis. However, upon closer inspection, the uCT slice of Fig. 8D, for the vibrated sample, shows a greater number of smaller pores, but there still exist large and unevenly distributed pores. Please clarify.
Technical comments:
1. Lines 46, 47: In addition to the reference by Frolov and Fedyukin (1998) the reference by Shapiro et al. (1997) is relevant here.
2. Line 64: The use of indices to relate the microstructure of snow to elastic properties was proposed by Shapiro et al. (1997). Reference should be made here.
3. Line 99: How was the contact stress measured?
4. Line 148: What is termed elastic modulus is actually a stiffness component that differs from what is typically understood to be the elastic modulus, i.e., Young's modulus. In fact, the stiffness component, c_33, is a combination of adiabatic and shear modulus and is typically called the M modulus, or compressional wave modulus. Please revise here and throughout the manuscript.
5. Lines 227, 228: While this definition and figure (Fig. 6) helpfully give a qualitative idea of directional connectivity, a quantitative definition is lacking. A more precise definition should be given.
6. Figure 6: A left-hand coordinate system is very odd. It is typical to use a right-hand coordinate system.
7. Figure 7: The components of the box plot should be defined, e.g., quantiles, whisker lengths, etc.
8. Figure 10: Panel C represents snow microstructure, however, it is not clear whether it is an actual uCT scan like those shown in Fig. 8; please clarify. Panel D presents an illegible legend.
9. Figures 7, 9, 10 and 11: These figures have redundant illustrations of "control grou" and "experiment group" test configurations. This does not represent a good use of journal space and the redundancy should be eliminated.
References:
Abele, G. (1990). Snow roads and runways. US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, CRREL TR-90-3.
Barraclough, T. W., Blackford, J. R., Liebenstein, S., Sandfeld, S., Stratford, T. J., Weinländer, G., & Zaiser, M. (2017). Propagating compaction bands in confined compression of snow. Nature Physics, 13(3), 272-275.
Shapiro, L. H., Johnson, J. B., Sturm, M., & Blaisdell, G. L. (1997). Snow mechanics: review of the state of knowledge and applications. US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, CRREL Report 97-3.
Shoop, S. A., Alger, R. G., Kunnari, J., & Wieder, W. L. (2014). Evaluation of a New SnowPaver at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. US Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, CRREL TR-14-16.
Talalay, P. G. (2024). Mining and Construction in Snow and Ice: From Test Pits to Long Tunnels. Springer Nature.
Viet Dung, V., Panneton, R., & Gagné, R. (2019). Prediction of effective properties and sound absorption of random close packings of monodisperse spherical particles: Multiscale approach. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 145(6), 3606-3624.
Xiao, E., Wang, H., Ding, J., Tang, X., Sun, B., Yin, Z., ... & Wang, Y. (2026a). Mesoscale mechanical responses corresponding to the elastic moduli of compacted Antarctic snow near Zhongshan Station. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 113810.
Xiao, E., Han, T., Zhang, Q., Yin, Z., Wang, H., Hu, B., ... & Wang, Y. (2026b). Vibration effects on the uniaxial compressive strength of compacted Antarctic snow. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 104779.
Xiao, E., Han, T., Zhang, Q., Yin, Z., Wang, H., Hu, B., ... & Wang, Y. (2026c). Pressure sintering effect on the uniaxial compressive strength of reconstituted and compacted Antarctic snow. Journal of Glaciology, 1-26.