Mechanical behavior and borehole fracturing of Antarctic polar drilling : Experimental and peridynamic modeling

Xu, H. and Liu, Y. and Yang, G. and Li, B. and Chen, X. and Hou, X. (2026) Mechanical behavior and borehole fracturing of Antarctic polar drilling : Experimental and peridynamic modeling. Ocean Engineering, 362. ISSN 0029-8018

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Abstract

The mechanical behavior and failure mechanisms of Antarctic ice play a key role on borehole stability and structural integrity during polar drilling. Understanding these properties is essential for the design and operation in polar and offshore engineering. Due to long-term natural compaction and formation processes, Antarctic ice exhibits mechanical characteristics that differ from freshwater and sea ice. Existing constitutive models are inadequate for predicting mechanical response of Antarctic ice. This paper focuses on compressive behavior and constitutive relation of real Antarctic ice from polar scientific expedition. Uniaxial and triaxial tests are performed to analyze the effects of loading rate, temperature, and confining pressure. The results show that under uniaxial compression, increasing loading rates change the failure mode from shear to splitting, reflecting a rate-dependent ductile-brittle behavior. In the triaxial tests, confining pressure suppresses crack propagation, resulting in radial expansion without cracking. Based on experimental results, a constitutive model is developed for Antarctic ice, integrating both the nonlinear elastic and rate-dependent viscoelastic behavior. The proposed model shows excellent predictive accuracy, with peak stress errors below 3.52% and overall trends that matched experimental results (R2 > 0.977). The model is implemented within peridynamics to analyze ice borehole fracturing, highlighting the influence of loading rate on failure evolution. These findings enhance the understanding of Antarctic ice mechanics, providing experimental and theoretical insights for borehole fracturing in polar and offshore drilling.