Strengthening of polycrystalline ice by silica nanoparticles

Ice as a construction material has a number of advantages in the Arctic. It is a local, renewable, ecologically safe resource, and it does not require supplying from the mainland. However, mechanical characteristics of natural ice are rather low. The potential of known techniques of ice strengthening employing reinforcement by microfibers or macroscopic components is limited. The paper describes strengthening of the ice matrix using nanodisperse silica particles. Six-fold reduction of grain size induced by adding 10% wt of SiO$_2$ nanoparticles results in 2.5 times increase in strength limit in the uniaxial compression test and more than an order of magnitude increase in fracture energy.