Moving Loads on Ice Plates is a unique study into the effect of vehicles and aircraft travelling across floating ice sheets. It synthesizes in a single volume, with a coherent theme and nomenclature, the diverse literature on the topic, hitherto available only as research journal articles. Chapters on the nature of fresh water ice and sea ice, and on applied continuum mechanics are included, as is a chapter on the subject's venerable history in related areas of engineering and science. The most recent theories and data are discussed in great depth, demonstrating the advanced state of the modelling and experimental field programmes that have taken place. Finally, results are interpreted in the context of engineering questions faced by agencies operating in the polar and subpolar regions.
Although the book necessarily contains some graduate level applied mathematics, it is written to allow engineers, physicists and mathematicians to extract the information they need without becoming preoccupied with details. Structural, environmental, civil, and offshore engineers, and groups who support these industries, particularly within the Arctic and Antarctic, will find the book timely and relevant.