ИСТИНА

The mechanism of fracture in the vicinity of the region of mutual cutting of ice cover plates is considered on the basis of the analysis of sea ice cover compression structures development. A model of the cutting process based on the representation of this region as the longitudinal shear is proposed. The obtained structures of fracture at shear in the model materials containing capillary pores were analyzed. In particular, it was shown that during the formation of the cracks the distance between cracks along the shear front in the primary echelon structure of brittle fracture is linearly related to the incision tip radius. An estimate is obtained for the effective fracture toughness of ice at longitudinal shear.