Large single sea ice crystals were grown and evaluated for quality in an earlier on year NSF Grant MSM-872294. It has been determined that these large single sea ice crystals can be grown at a large enough rate to enable testing to be conducted on approximately 100 samples to determine the microstructural processes such as dislocation mechanics and microcrack damage of sea ice crystals. The proposed work will be a follow-on to begin the routine crystal growth process, initiate a comprehencsive testing program of single sea ice crystals, and to develop a microstructurally based constitutive law for single crystals. This constitutive law will be formulated in terms of elastic strains, dislocation processes and microcracking. The overall program is aimed at determing the properties of "polycrystalline" sea ice and to develop a better understanding of the variors deformation mechanisms in the deformation process.
