2 Mar 2022

High Efficiency Fuel Sleds for Polar Traverses

Abstract: We describe here the evolution of lightweight, high-efficiency fuel sleds for Polar over-snow traverses. These sleds consist of flexible bladders strapped to sheets of high molecular weight polyethylene. They cost 1/6th, weigh 1/10th and triple the fuel delivered per towing tractor compared with steel sleds. An eight-tractor fleet has conducted three 3400-km roundtrips to South Pole with each travers delivering 320,000 kg of fuel while emitting <1% the pollutants, consuming 1/2 the fuel and saving $1.6 M compared with aircraft resupply. A two-tractor fleet in Greenland recently delivered 83,000 kg of fuel in bladder sleds to Summit with similar benefits. Performance monitoring has revealed that bladder-sled towing resistance is largely governed by sliding friction, which can start high and drop in half over the first 30 min of travel. Frictional heating probably produces a thin water layer that lubricates the sled–snow interface. Consequently, towing resistance depends on the thermal budget of the sled. For example, black fuel bladders increase solar gain and thus decrease sled resistance; data suggest they could double again the fuel delivered per tractor. The outstanding efficiency and low cost of these sleds has transformed fuel delivery to Polar research stations.

16 Dec 2021

Evidence that Abrasion Can Govern Snow Kinetic Friction

Abstract: The long-accepted theory to explain why snow is slippery postulates self-lubrication: frictional heat from sliding melts and thereby lubricates the contacting snow grains. We recently published micro-scale interface observations that contradicted this explanation: contacting snow grains abraded and did not melt under a polyethylene slider, despite low friction values. Here we provide additional observational and theoretical evidence that abrasion can govern snow kinetic friction. We obtained coordinated infrared, visible-light and scanning-electron micrographs that confirm that the evolving shapes observed during our tribometer tests are contacting snow grains polished by abrasion, and that the wear particles can sinter together and fill the adjacent pore spaces. Furthermore, dry-contact abrasive wear reasonably predicts the evolution of snow-slider contact area and sliding-heat-source theory confirms that contact temperatures would not reach 0°C during our tribometer tests. Importantly, published measurements of interface temperatures also indicate that melting did not occur during field tests on sleds and skis. Although prevailing theory anticipates a transition from dry to lubricated contact along a slider, we suggest that dry-contact abrasion and heat flow can prevent this transition from occurring for snow-friction scenarios of practical interest.

16 Dec 2021

Revisiting Mechanics of Ice–Skate Friction: From Experiments at a Skating Rink to a Unified Hypothesis

Abstract: The mechanics underlying ice–skate friction remain uncertain despite over a century of study. In the 1930s, the theory of self-lubrication from frictional heat supplanted an earlier hypothesis that pressure melting governed skate friction. More recently, researchers have suggested that a layer of abraded wear particles or the presence of quasi-liquid molecular layers on the surface of ice could account for its slipperiness. Here, we assess the dominant hypotheses proposed to govern ice– skate friction and describe experiments conducted in an indoor skating rink aimed to provide observations to test these hypotheses. Our results indicate that the brittle failure of ice under rapid compression plays a strong role. Our observations did not confirm the presence of full contact water films and are more consistent with the presence of lubricating ice-rich slurries at discontinuous high-pressure zones (HPZs). The presence of ice-rich slurries supporting skates through HPZs merges pressure-melting, abrasion and lubricating films as a unified hypothesis for why skates are so slippery across broad ranges of speeds, temperatures and normal loads. We suggest tribometer experiments to overcome the difficulties of investigating these processes during actual skating trials.