Subventions et des contributions :

Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2018-2019)

Ice roads, ice runways, and ice platforms provide vital access to remote areas of Canada for the resupply ofx000D
isolated communities as well as the exploration and development of natural resources for economic growth inx000D
Canada. Accurately determining the safe bearing capacity for these ice covers is critical, and is closelyx000D
dependent on the ice thickness as a design parameter. Technological advances such as Ground Penetratingx000D
Radar (GPR) now allow us to take thousands of ice thickness measurements in a fraction of the time thatx000D
previous methods of drilling through the ice and manually measuring took. Despite GPR now providing ax000D
comprehensive understanding of the ice cover thickness profile, standard of practice dictates that the absolutex000D
minimum ice thickness measured must be the value used in design. Using the minimum ice thicknessx000D
measured for calculating the safe bearing capacity of an ice cover does not consider the respective location,x000D
size, or frequency of the thin ice areas. This results in an overly conservative ice cover design, which hasx000D
detrimental effects on communities and industries in the North. NOR-EX Ice Engineering Inc. requires anx000D
understanding of how variations in ice thickness impact the overall performance/bearing capacity of an icex000D
road. The results of this research project will allow NOR-EX Ice Engineering Inc. to develop a methodologyx000D
for using an effective ice thickness from GPR data rather than an overly conservative minimum ice thickness.